


Moonshine Madness

by Ultra



Category: Firefly
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Conversations, Confusion, Crew as Family, Deception, Ensemble Cast, F/M, Fights, Fist Fights, Gen, Gun Violence, Identity Issues, Love, Marriage Proposal, Memories, Moonshine, Multiple Pairings, One Big Happy Family, Relationship(s), Revelations, Romance, Secrets, Sex, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:08:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25071415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: 'Four men and four women sat together around a large dining table, all beginning to wake from a deep and peaceful slumber at more or less the same moment. Eight pairs of eyes all fluttered open, and eight pairs of ears pricked up, as these people took in the sights and sounds of their wholly unfamiliar environment.'
Relationships: Hoban Washburne/Zoë Washburne, Jayne Cobb/River Tam, Kaylee Frye/Simon Tam, Malcolm Reynolds & Zoë Washburne, Malcolm Reynolds/Inara Serra, Saffron (Firefly)/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 32





	1. Who Are You?

**Author's Note:**

> I found this on my hard-drive. According to the date on the file, I started writing this TEN YEARS ago! It doesn’t seem that long and I always did intend to come back and finish it. I figured now was as good a time as any. If it gets any readers, I’ll be amazed, but I made a deal with myself that it will be completed this go around (I seem to remember trying to get it going at least three times before!) and posting it is a good way to ensure I follow through on that deal. So, here goes...
> 
> (I don't know where in canon this would take place, but potentially it's an AU post-BDM?)

Laughter wasn’t always something associated with the crew of Serenity, least not when they was planet-side, in the middle of new and exciting crime. Still, today was a little different, because the job had actually gone smooth. One of the Captain’s plans had come together, strange as it seemed, and all was right with the ‘verse. It had meant the crew meeting up with another band of smugglers similar to themselves, passing on goods and getting paid their share. That hadn’t gone quite so well, as the Alliance almost caught them in the act. The two gangs had to work together to escape, but all had done so, and with the minimum of harm caused.

The fray over with, Captain Boyd of the ship Saber, had invited Captain Reynolds to bring his crew for a round of drinks at the local watering hole, celebrate another victory won against the Alliance, however small. Feeling his crew needed the break, Mal had gratefully accepted the kind offer and here they all were, laughing at war stories and such around a poker table, hands of cards and mugs of beer occupying every hand.

Of course, not everyone was a card player. Mostly the girls chose just to watch, except for Zoe, of course, who was almost wishing her own husband had sat out on the game given how badly he was doing. Her man was good at a whole lot of things, but poker really weren’t one of them. Simon had been dealt in, only because Kaylee and River had given him so much encouragement. So far he was astonishing everyone with how well he could actually play.

As the night grew darker, and the two groups of men and women grew equal parts sleepier and more drunk, the stakes of the poker game started to get a little crazy. Zoe had stopped playing just to get her husband to do the same, and a couple of the Saber’s crew had grown bored of losing so much of their newly earned coin. All that remained was Mal, Jayne, and Simon, plus Captain Boyd and two more of his men.

“I fold,” said Simon, backing his chair up from the table and at the same moment looking pale.

“Oh, honey, I think you’re about to do more than that,” Kaylee sympathised, helping him towards the bathroom just as fast a she could manage.

“I’m in,” said Jayne around the cigar he was smoking, throwing more cash into the centre of the table.

“I’m out,” said his opposite number, his shipmate also deciding to fold too.

It seemed that this might be the last hand, as those who were out decided to leave the table and call it a night entirely. The only ones who now remained were Mal and Jayne, alongside Captain Boyd, who had yet to declare his position.

“What do you say, Jin?” asked his fellow captain. “Wanna keep on goin’?”

“Sure, Mal.” He grinned too widely, showing off his lack of back teeth. “But how ’bout we make these stakes a little more... interestin’?” he suggested.

“Could do that.” Mal nodded along. “What’d you have in mind?”

“Mighty fine ship you got there.” Jin smiled.

Immediately, his opponent shook his head. “’Fraid you’re gettin’ into territory I ain’t drunk enough for,” said Mal definitely. “Coin I got to spare right now. Play for the shirt on my back if’n I thought it was worth the gamble, but ain’t a person in the ‘verse gonna get me to bet my home on no two-bit poker game.”

Mal dumped his cards on the table then, pulled his cash towards him and got packed up to leave.

“Hey, don’t be that way, Mal,” Jin urged him. “It was only an idea.”

“Well, it was a dumb one,” he said definitely, looking to Jayne as he shoved his money into his inside pocket and got up from the table too. “Now we had a mighty nice evenin’ and I got no reason to quarrel with you. We’ll just call it a night now, go on our way,” he said civilly, holding out a hand.

Captain Boyd eyed him a moment and honestly Mal was glad he’d offered his left hand to the man, his right hovering near the holster strapped to his body. Always had to be ready for someone to make a different move to what you expect or want them to. Thankfully, tonight was a good night, and Jin Boyd just smiled, eventually taking a hold of Mal’s hand and shaking it with gusto.

“You’re a decent man, Malcolm Reynolds,” he told him, much to the relief of both crews in the bar looking on, neither much wanting another brawl tonight. “In fact, I tell you what I’m gonna do. Me and my boys, we got some real decent booze, special recipe one of the womenfolk cooked up for us,” he told the other captain in a low voice. “Call it a kinda apology for my goin’ too far, and for fightin’ at our side in that Alliance brawl earlier on. Coulda turned tail, but you didn’t.”

“Ain’t in my nature to do so,” said Mal with a wry smile, “but you don’t really have to... Okay, apparently we accept your gift,” he changed tack when he realised the two large bottles had already been handed over to Zoe and Jayne, the latter of which had the top off and was taking a healthy swig before anyone could hardly blink.

“Mighty fine of you,” said Captain Boyd with a chuckle as he slapped Mal across the back, and the two crews finally parted ways.

The short walk back to Serenity seemed to sober Simon up some, if nothing else. Kaylee had promised the fresh air would help and she hadn’t been wrong. Wash and Zoe headed up the ramp with their arms around each other, and Inara escorting River somewhere behind Jayne and Mal.

“Mighty glad we left the preacher at the abbey for his meditatin’ afore this trip started,” said Jayne, listing to the left some as they headed inside and Mal closed up the ramp door. “Pretty sure he’d have all kinds to say ‘bout us gettin’ drunk and disorderly.”

“I, for one, am neither drunk nor disorderly,” stated Inara with mild-disgust but also a little amusement, “but I’m fairly certain you’re doing enough of both for all of us, Jayne.”

“This hooch is gorram mi-raculous stuff, Mal,” the merc told the Captain, not even paying attention to the girls giggling about his state of drunkenness. “Oughta try it. Don’t taste like nothin’ I ever had before.”

“Smells like fruit punch kinda” Kaylee frowned as she leaned in closer to get a whiff. “Strange for liquor to smell so good, ain’t it?”

“A lot of alcohol comes from various fruits and even vegetables,” noted Simon as they all climbed the stairs headed towards the galley.

“I could stand a night cap, once I get us up in the air and all,” said Wash, winking at Zoe who seemed to agree to the plan.

It wasn’t long before the whole crew were sat round the dinner table with various cups and glasses in their hands, Mal pouring out a healthy measure of this strange looking, fruity smellin’ moonshine for every person present. Simon looked somewhat put-out that River was grinning so much over her share of the booze, but just this once he couldn’t see it doing her any harm. Besides, he was still a little drunk himself and perhaps not thinking so very clearly.

“So, here’s to a job well done today,” said Mal as he got back to the head of the table and raised his glass. “Good work, people.”

Various calls of ‘cheers’, ‘good health’, and such were made as the group of eight downed their liquor at various rates. Reactions varied, but all were pretty fierce. The heat and strength of the stuff set all the girls coughing and though Simon and Wash did their best not to follow suit, they winced terribly at the strength of the alcohol.

Mal shook his head a little to clear the immediate headache that hit him and though Jayne had been sipping the drink from the get go, downing a whole glass in one was even a little much for him to handle, proven by the way his face twisted into a grimace.

“Well, ain’t that somethin?’” said Zoe, the only girl not coughing up her lungs right about now, but looking as if she felt a little breathless, truth be told.

Though everyone agreed, and were sure they’d suffer something terrible for the drinking of it, not one amongst the crew declined when offered another glass. Why Mal even suggested it made little or no sense and yet another round was poured and duly swallowed down by all.

It was within mere seconds of this that the darkness began to creep up on each member of Serenity’s crew, and within the space of not more than a minute, they were all sound asleep.

* * *

Four men and four women sat together around a large dining table, all beginning to wake from a deep and peaceful slumber at more or less the same moment. Eight pairs of eyes all fluttered open, and eight pairs of ears pricked up, as these people took in the sights and sounds of their wholly unfamiliar environment.

“What the...?” the man at the head of the table said, shaking his head a little to clear the apparent fog within. “I don’t...” he started again as he shifted his weight some and the head on his shoulder popped up, the dark-skinned woman peering at him with suspicious eyes.

“Who are you?” she asked, with some severity to her tone, immediately putting the guy on the defensive, hands raised in some kind of surrender.

“I’m... Well, I...” Thinking long and hard brought no name to mind and the poor man could only shake his head one more time in confusion.

“Where am I?” asked a little voice down the end of the table, a girl in green dungarees pulling her knees up into her chest and looking all kinds of scared.

“Hey, there’s no panic here, little lady,” the man at the head of the table assured her. “Least, I don’t reckon so. Anyone here sure on their names or where we all are?” he asked hopefully but only received seven blank looks in return.

“Drooled on you, apologies,” said the youngest of the bunch, as she brushed her hand over the upper arm of the large man beside her, mindful of any mess she’d caused whilst she had slept all snuggled up against him.

“Don’t worry on it,” he told her, as the odd looking couple shared a smile.

“So this is, what? Group amnesia?” asked the man in the crazy shirt from across the table. “’Cause I never heard that one before...”

“I have,” answered the final man, dressed much smarter than all the rest and blushing profusely when all attention was turned to him. “I think?” he added sheepishly, unsure that he could explain further, even if he wished to.

“I am certain we should all know a great many things and yet for some reason we know nothing, not even our own identifies,” said the elegant lady sat at the other end of the table, eyeing the strange bottles of alcohol a distance from her. “I wonder if this might be the reason why?”

She rose up at the same moment as the man sat at the far end and neither looked pleased that the other might want to take charge.

“Let’s start from the front then,” the man suggested. “Let’s get us folks some names figured out at least.”

The woman across the way only stared a moment, looking a little affronted to have words taken from her mouth in such a way.

“An excellent idea,” she was forced to agree. “Does anyone have any identification cards or documents perhaps?” she asked the assembled group of so far nameless individuals, as the ship they did not realise was called Serenity sailed on through the black.


	2. What’s In A Name?

So far not one amongst the group of eight strangers sat around the table could actually give their name or anything about themselves, and that was more than a mite creepifyin, truth be known! Each dug in their pockets for possible ID or any information that could help them out. Eventually, somebody struck gold.

“I have documents,” said the dark-skinned woman, handing them over to the man beside her at the head of the table who seemed to have appointed himself leader.

Opening up the leather folder, the man read aloud some of the words printed on the apparent registration documents inside.

“Firefly Class Ship... Serenity,” he said, “Well, that gives us some idea where we are.” He half-smiled. “And I’m guessing that Captain James... Har-bat-kin is me?” he suggested.

Though none could say why they should do such a thing, several around the table nodded their agreement to that proposal.

“I have a licence. Hey, _pilot_ ’s licence,” said the red-haired man half way down the table with an impressed grin, producing said laminated item from his wallet. “Hoban Washburne,” he read aloud. “I guess that’s me?” he said then, making a face that suggested he was not entirely impressed.

“Hoban?” the larger man across the way echoed, with a chuckle of laughter. “That’s a real dumb name.”

“Yeah, and what’s yours, tough guy?” the apparent pilot challenged, as the big galloot re-checked his pockets and came up empty... again.

“She wears words around her neck,” said the girl beside him, fingering a necklace a moment before untying the simple string and laying it on the table before her.

The big guy she’d been sleeping on leant over to see the strung wooden beads and the Chinese symbols they bore. Meant next to nothin’ to him but the girl they belonged to smiled wide as she recognised words in those markings.

“Meaning stream,” she pointed out.

“Stream?” Hoban echoed. “Like a river?”

“Or a brook?” suggested the captain, wondering on why the girl should have such words hanging around her neck like that.

“Yes, Brooke.” She smiled wider then, apparently grateful to Harbatkin for his idea. “She believes this to be an acceptable name,” she said with a nod of her head, before her attention turned back to the man at her side, “but what of her betrothed?” she wondered aloud.

The man’s face twisted into a look of confusion. “Be- _what_ now?” he asked, leaning away from her some, mindful of what he was getting into here.

Sure, she was a pretty thing and all, but he didn’t want no ideas of no marriage being tossed his way if he could avoid it. There was more than one woman around this table, and as of yet none claimed as married. He could have his pick and he’d take it, without no-one making that decision for him.

“They woke entwined.” Brooke reminded him. “Connected. He doesn’t feel it?” she said with such an intense look as she leaned in close to him, her hand on his arm feeling like it was burning clean through his flesh.

“I... I’m feelin’ somethin’,” he admitted, though where his blood was rushing weren’t necessarily what she had in mind.

“Seems Brooke ain’t the only one with some fancy neckware for a clue,” said the woman sat by the captain still, taking the attention off Brooke and the man she would stick to apparently. “Marriage bands if I ain’t mistaken,” she said of the black cord she wore, looking to the captain.

“Well... Mrs Harbatkin?” he tried, at which she smiled some, though to his mind not enough somehow.

“Reckon so, I guess,” his apparent wife agreed, though she really didn’t look so very comfortable with such an idea.

Seemed they was wed though, else all of this made even less sense than if they wasn’t. There was a definite connection between them, that much came from instinct, though somehow marriage vows didn’t sit well with whatever they was to each other. Brother and sister seemed less likely at least, but still poor Mrs Harbatkin, as she was bound to be known from here on out, weren’t terribly fixed on her title.

“Right,” said the captain, looking around the table now. “Who’s that leave us with then, ‘cept for Brooke’s other half that we already discussed,” he pointed out.

“Just us three,” said the girl in the dungarees, raising her hand aloft and gesturing between herself, the fancy looking gent across from her, and the fine lady at the other end of the table. “I got no ID nor nothin’,” she said sadly, “’Cept, I did find this hanky in my pocket. ‘S got ST sewn right into the corner.”

She showed everybody the proof of it, at which the guy opposite looked surprised.

“I believe that belongs to me,” he said, showing the wallet from his back pocket that also bore the same initials embossed into the leather.

“Then one must assume that you two are, at the very least, courting,” said the fancy lady sat between them, making both parties blush profusely as their eyes met briefly across the table.

“And yet, we ain’t so close as to knowin’ who ya even are,” said the captain with a sigh. “So, seems we need a mite more detective work to be done here, and this is how I say we go about doin’ it,” he explained as he stood at the end of the table and took charge as any good captain might. “We all seem like fit and healthy folk, save for a lack of rememberin’ are names and such. I’m thinkin’ maybe we wander a bit, search out some clues as to who we are and why we’re here like this.”

“I agree,” said the lady at the other end of the table, as she rose to her feet. “At the very least we must all have a name to call each other”

“And the rest o’ you folks?” asked Mal as he looked around at the set of crew he couldn’t remember at all, getting nods of agreement all around. “Uh, Mrs Harbatkin?” he checked with his so-called wife who also nodded her head, forcing a smile.

“Yes... dear,” she said feeling awfully strange doing so and noticing, not for the first time, that Hoban was staring at her in the strangest way - it bothered her.

“Right then.” The captain clapped his hands. “Let’s get to movin’,” he proposed and with a scraping of chairs against the floor, all eight prepared to investigate this ship called Serenity that was currently as unfamiliar to them as anything ever had been in their lives.

It was decided they would split into two groups, make the searching for clues somewhat easier. The Captain and his wife, along with Hoban and the unnamed lady went out of the door that led towards the front of the ship, whilst Brooke and her intended went with the unknown courting couple towards the back.

Neither group knew what they were going to find when they got there, or how any of them even got on this ship in the gorram first place, but none spoke of the fear and uncertainties they felt. Wouldn’t do no good to let their guard down none or show any weakness, since there was no guarantees they was safe here or could trust anybody. When you didn’t even known your own name, even trusting yourself didn’t come easy.

* * *

It was a strange feeling for the four crew members of Serenity as they wandered from the galley through to what appeared to be a comfortable area for sitting and an infirmary full of medical supplies. It was odd enough not knowing where they was or why, but stranger still not even knowing their own names. So far the only one to have anything to call herself was Brooke, and all the other information they had about themselves or each other was that they was most likely two couples here.

Brooke’s man was walking with his arm slung around her shoulders, which she seemed to like well enough. He hadn’t so much done it on purpose as it just felt like the thing to do, coming natural to him to be like her protector or some such.

The other man wasn’t sure he liked it much, though he couldn’t say why. He certainly felt like he cared about Brooke, and yet when it came to any kind of real attraction, he had to agree with the elegant lady’s idea from before, that the girl in the overalls was supposed to be with him.

“She feels at home here,” said Brooke as she moved to a door that easily slid open, a wide smile curving her lips as she stepped inside, picking up a notebook from the nighstand by what she was certain was her bed. “She is an artist,” she announced, showing the man who held her close still that there were pencil drawings in said book.

“That’s a mighty fine picture there, bao bei,” he told her kindly as he took in the decent portait on the man they was calling captain right now.

Sure enough, there at the bottom was his name, Brooke noted, though not as she expected it to be written. Instead of ‘Captain Harbatkin’, it said ‘Captain Daddy’.

“She is beloved child of he who rules,” she said, a little in awe of that fact apparently, though her friend giggled giddily at the news.

“Aaw, ain’t that shiny and sweet,” she enthused. “You’re here aboard the ship with your folks!”

“No pictures of her lover.” Brooke sighed, barely listening now as she flipped through pages, hoping to find some sketch of her man so she might have a name for him too.

He looked equally as disappointed, but when she glanced up to meet his eyes, she knew how to take that pain away.

“Too handsome to be properly captured on paper.” She smiled up at him. “Already a work of manly art,” she told him, causing him to look almighty proud of himself.

The other man, hovering by the doorway, wanted to gag or at least get away. He tugged on his own girlfriend’s hand, hoping she would follow him into the other room across the hall, which she did. Inside, the furnishings were similar to that in Brooke’s room, except more manly... a little anyway. In the corner, he found a small bag with the same initials on from before, knowing immediately it must be his. Inside, all kinds of medical instruments and drugs were laid out, which his girlfriend saw as she peered over his shoulder.

“Jahn!” she gasped. “Reckon you must be our doctor,” she reacted with surprise but delight at the realisation her handsome man was also smart and all. “Oh, look!” she added then, reaching past him to grab a card from inside the med bag.

“Dr Simon Tam,” he read aloud as she handed it to him. “ST stands for Simon Tam.” He smiled, glad to know his name at last, as well as his reputable profession.

“Two down, two to go,” said the as yet unnamed man as he and Brooke appeared in the doorway. “Where else we gotta look for clues?”

“Uh, I reckon the engine room oughta be further down this way,” said the girl who looked like she belonged in such a place, however unlikely it seemed that the ship’s mechanic should be a young woman.

Fact of it was, the overalls she wore made it gorram likely, and when they got in there and found a girly looking hammock with a teddy bear sat in it and all, it made even more sense to think she was the one who spent most time tinkering with Serenity’s innards.

“Her place, beside the beating heart,” said Brooke as she gazed across at the the girl, sure already they must be friends. “A clue to her name would be here more than anywhere,” she said, cocking her head to one side and turning a full circle as she looked around.

“Here,” said Simon as he fished a small book out of the hammock that bore a heart on the cover and a name in swirling script - Kaylee.

“Hey, guess that must be me then,” said the newly-named Kaylee, grinning as wide as her face would allow, smile brighter than any star.

The one lone person in this half of the crew with no name yet opened his mouth to ask what they was gonna do about his situation, just as an alarm started to sound. A light flashed like crazy over their heads, signalling they ought be panicking about something, though not a one amongst them knew what, as the alarm grew loud enough to deafen a person.

Without a word being spoken, they all headed for the door, practically falling over each other as they ran down the corridor headed for the bridge. Thankfully, the siren fell silent before they ever got there and it seemed order had already been resumed. Hoban was quick to assure everyone that it was but a minor mishap and he now had full control.

The eight people crammed awkwardly onto the bridge let out a collective sigh of relief, though there were still the worries of exactly where they were and for some of them _who_ they were too!

“Well, we got a little good news,” said the mechanic with a wide smile. “We got names. Mine’s Kaylee, and this here is Simon,” she told the rest who didn’t know yet.

“I’m Zoe.” Mrs Harbatkin also smiled, though her expression didn’t so much meet her eyes, especially when her husband’s arm crept around her shoulders.

“Well, don’t that just help you out too, Miss?” said Captain Harbatkin to the elegant woman standing to his left. “If’n Kaylee here is... well, Kaylee,” he said awkwardly. “That only leaves one other female name we found.”

“Indeed.” She nodded once. “I suppose then I must be the mysterious Inara,” she realised, “and one of the shuttles belongs to me.”

“Certainly seems that way,” Hoban agreed, as he showed the others the hand written label attached to the console that read ‘Inara’s Shuttle’.

It was stuck above a panel of switches and buttons that presumably allowed the pilot to release the shuttle and such, and as such, had provided a name for the penultimate person needing one.

“Guess that just leaves one without a notion who he is,” said the captain, looking to the nameless man with Brooke hanging from his arm - that in itself gave James Harbatkin an uncomfortableness which was about to be explained.

“She knows why you care.” Brooke smiled, handing over the book of artwork she had found in her room, the sketch of the captain right there on the top.

“I’m your daddy?” he said with an odd look that fast turned into affection as he hugged a smiling Brooke to him. “Well, imagine that,” he said, glancing round the group but not entirely taking in their expressions.

“That don’t help me none,” the leftover man without a name groused.

Kaylee was just about to suggest they keep looking for clues when Brooke cut in, coming out of her father’s embrace and facing her lover with a pensive look on her features.

“She will name him, if he will let her,” she said, gazing up into his eyes, transfixing him to the point where he could only nod in response. “He is her man and all man.” She smiled, as she reached for him, her hands running down his arms, reaching his own hands, at which point she tangled their fingers together. “Until they know better, he shall be Adam, named for the first man to walk upon Earth That Was.”

“Adam?” the newly named man repeated, a smile forming on his own face. “Kinda suits me, don’t it?”

“It does,” Kaylee agreed with a grin.

“Well, at least we have that settled,” said Inara, “Having something to call ourselves and each other is certainly a step forward”

They all agreed with that and yet at the same time it seemed like a very small victory right now. There was an awful lot that was still a mystery to Serenity’s crew. This was only the first step of a very long journey.


	3. Where Do We Go From Here?

Captain James Harbatkin of the Firefly class transport ship Serenity stood up on the bridge behind his pilot, Hoban, looking out at the black laid before them. God only knew where in the ‘verse they were right now, but he was hoping that before long things would become clear. Something sure needed to make sense, and sooner rather than later would be good. All they knew for sure right now was each of their names, more or less anyway, and that the last thing they’d all been doing before they woke up here without their memories was drinking some kind of hooch.

The crew had split up to go looking for evidence, trying to figure out what work they all did, where each of them might sleep and all. Simon and Kaylee had taken the back of the ship, the engine room and the infirmary where they seemed to belong. Inara had gone to investigate her shuttle, whilst Zoe checked out the galley and the crew bunks in the hopes of assigning a room to each person. That left Brooke and Adam with the cargo bay to explore. The Captain himself had decided to stay put on the bridge until Hoban got done with his number crunching and map reading and gave them some idea where they might be.

“Ok-ay,” the pilot extended the word as he made a final check of the sky. “Far as I can tell, we’re on course for a place called... Whitefall,” he said, craning his neck to look back at the captain.

“Whitefall,” he echoed the unfamiliar planet’s name, wondering if the rest of the crew had found any clues as to why they were headed in this direction or not. “How long until we get there?”

“Couple of days, far as I can tell,” Hoban told him. “Though it’s not so far away. Seems we plotted the longest course possible, staying away from any living person in the whole ‘verse.”

Captain Harbatkin considered those words with a frown. It concerned him, wondering why he and his family and crew might need to steer clear of the law. Not that he cared for the Alliance much, that he was pretty sure of. When it had been discovered, the very name of the government had sent a shiver down his spine and made every hair on the back of his neck stand on end. No, he was not a fan, though he hadn’t a clue why as yet.

“Seems to me we oughta just go where we’re headed, see what happens,” he said after a moment’s thought. “Meantime, I’m gonna go catch up to my wife, see what she mighta found.”

He walked away then, leaving Hoban alone at the controls. Up here, just him and the black, it was comfortable, in spite of the loneliness that ought to be surrounding him. Seemed to Hoban he was here a lot and must be used to being by himself, though at the same time he got the weirdest feeling that something was missing. Sure, his memories were one major piece of the puzzle that was lost, but it was more than that. He also wondered how he could stand to stay on this ship with his heart skipping a beat every time his eyes met those of the captain’s wife.

Zoe Harbatkin sure was one hell of a woman, and were she not wed, Hoban knew he would be making some kind of move by now. As it was, he seemed to be the only man aboard without a woman, since everyone else was paired up, barring him and Inara. Somehow, he couldn’t see himself with someone as fancy as her. He honestly wondered why such a lady would be travelling on a ship like this anyway, but for now at least, even she couldn’t explain that.

* * *

It wasn’t bothering Adam much that he didn’t know his name nor where he really was. Seemed to him that when you got landed in a situation such as this, you just made the best of it until the next thing came along. So long as he was fed and had some place here to sleep at night, that was alright with him. Besides, if anybody decided to screw him over or mess him around, he was pretty sure he could handle himself in any kind of fight.

What was confusing him most was how he’d come to be attached to Brooke. She was a whole lot of years younger than him and all kinds of fragile and pretty. Adam couldn’t imagine what he ever did to deserve such a woman in his life. More than that, he wondered how he was living this way without her daddy shooting him dead. After all, Captain Harbatkin didn’t seem much like the type that’d take kindly to his little girl getting sexed by a guy like Adam, and he couldn’t imagine they was together without that kind of thing going on.

“Thinking too hard,” said Brooke with a frown, as she turned a circle in the middle of the empty cargo bay to look back at her man who hovered by the stairs still. “She feels it, like pounding waves over her skin,” she said, wavering back and forth as if she really was being buffeted by some kind of force he was radiating.

Of course, her phrasing could’ve been better, since Adam immediately put the words pounding and Brooke together and got a whole bunch of other thoughts he maybe didn’t ought to be having right now, especially if there was a chance she somehow knew what was going on in his head.

“How’d you know what I’m thinkin’?” he asked with a frown, not sure he liked it much that she could get inside his head, even if they was a couple, which she seemed certain they was.

“She isn’t sure,” the girl admitted freely. “Not sure of her own mind and yet his comes clear and strong.” She smiled then as she moved towards him. “Perhaps because of their love for each other?” she suggested, putting her hands up to his shoulders as she stood before him now on tip toes. “Their minds dance together, like their hearts,” she explained, gazing up at him, all big eyes and a smile meant just for him.

Hell, Adam knew he was a crazy person if he didn’t want to kiss her, and it weren’t exactly like he shouldn’t. The way she told it, him and Brooke were a couple, and while it didn’t really make sense to him, he didn’t mind the idea at all. Besides, her daddy knew about it and hadn’t tried to kill him or turn him off the ship so...

He muttered to himself in Chinese, wondering if he was going to go to hell for this but not really sure why he should, as he took a hold of the little woman and kissed her like it was going out of style.

* * *

Zoe was just coming up the ladder from one of the crew bunks as her so-called husband came along the corridor looking for her.

“You find anything interestin’, honey?” he asked her with a smile, the sentiment not quite sitting right with her somehow, yet Zoe shook it off and painted on a grin her ownself.

“Not much to go on.” She shrugged, as she stood before him now, wiping her hands off on the legs of her pants. “Seems this room might be Adam’s own,” she explained, gesturing towards it. “Plenty of manly possessions and clothes big enough to fit,” she explained. “The next along is the only double so I gotta figure that’d be yours and mine.”

What she didn’t say was that she hadn’t actually ventured down there to check anything. Zoe wasn’t awful comfortable with the notion she was sharing a bed with this man, even though she did believe they had some kind of bond, and all evidence pointed towards the fact they was wed. 

“Well, I guess we should...” James began to say, only to stop abruptly when a clatter came from somewhere down beyond the galley.

In a rush, Zoe set off running through to the back of the ship, the captain duly following, and the both of them going for their guns on instinct alone. Neither was exactly sure if they even knew how to use a piece, and yet they were both stood their pointing their weapons into the infirmary just as soon as they got there.

They got quite the surprise on realising there was no trouble, in fact, quite the opposite, as Kaylee and Simon seemed to be in some kind of clinch. She was pretty much on top of the guy, bending him over backwards on the counter top, having sent some medical equipment crashing to the floor, hence the noise that had brought Zoe and James running to the unnecessary rescue of them both.

Captain Harbatkin cleared his throat loudly as his wife tried not to grin at the scene in front of her. The handsy couple quickly parted from their making out, Simon turned a shade of scarlet rarely seen on anything but a tomato, and Kaylee made an awful big deal about flattening out her hair and such.

“Oh, hey there, Cap’n,” she said with a giggle that wouldn’t stay in. “We was just... y’know, explorin’ and such.”

“Is that what folks are callin’ it these days?” he asked Zoe with a smirk that he couldn’t help.

“News to me, dear,” she replied, putting a hand to his arm and encouraging him away from the two bashful young lovers.

Simon was already on his hands and knees, cleaning up the mess they’d made, as Kaylee bust up laughing at having been caught in the act of trying to get someplace with her sweetie.

Zoe and James walked away, resuming their earlier conversation in the galley now.

“So, you find out from Hoban where we’re headed?” she asked with interest, trying not to smile as she overheard Kaylee laughing loudly still.

“I surely did.” Her husband nodded his reply. “Some place by the name of Whitefall. It’s a couple o’ days travel from here. Seems we’d get their faster if the course didn’t seem to be takin’ us just as far away from civilisation as we can be,” he told her, wondering what her opinion on such a situation might be.

“We obviously have our reasons for steering clear of the law,” she considered, cut off from saying anything else as a voice behind her broke into the conversation.

“And why do we think that might be?” asked Inara as she appeared in the doorway. “All evidence strongly suggests that I am a registered Companion,” she explained. “Such a person as myself would hardly be likely to travel with criminals or fugitives.”

“Unless you was runnin’ from something just the same as the rest of us,” said the captain, folding his arms across his chest, a little ticked off at having his private conversation interrupted, and also not happy about this woman’s high and mighty attitude. “I mean, who knows?” he shrugged. “Maybe you’re the rule-breaking, cheatin’ kind of a whore,” he said nastily.

Inara looked equal parts angry and hurt that he would speak to her that way, and yet was not given time to complain or argue. A loud, shrill scream from the cargo bay caught the attention of the entire crew, not a one amongst them able to have missed the sound.

“Brooke!” her father shouted as he ran, fast as his legs would take him.

The rest followed, appearing from all directions onto the catwalk above the cargo bay within a minute.

The captain called Brooke’s name again as he galloped down the stairway to get to her.

She sat in the middle of the large open space, hugging her knees into her chest, quaking and crying like she’d had the fright off her life.

“Bao bei, what happened?” asked James as he crouched down to her height, putting his hands to her cheeks and noting waterfalls of tears there.

“She didn’t mean it,” she said, through great heaving sobs. “She didn’t meant to hurt, she didn’t!” she wailed as her father put his arms around her and tried to bring her some comfort.

“Oh my God!” Kaylee’s gasp behind him caught the captain’s attention then.

He turned his head, never letting up his hold on Brooke even when he noticed what the rest of the crew already had. There across the way lay Adam, flat on his back and apparently out cold. Immediately, Simon swung into action, the way only a doctor could, checking that the apparently injured man was breathing and had a steady pulse.

“Is he okay?” asked Hoban worriedly.

“What happened here?” said Inara, her question hot on the heels of the pilot’s own.

Zoe came to kneel the other side of Brooke, hoping to be of some help, and Kaylee fussed over the fallen Adam, while Simon continued his assessment of the situation.

“He’s alive,” he said, bringing more than one sigh of relief, “but it looks as if he’s suffered a significant blow to the head,” he added with some confusion as he looked across at Brooke and all gazes followed suit.

“She didn’t mean it!” she repeated desperately, burying her face in her father’s chest.

For obvious reasons, right now, those words seemed to be of little comfort to the rest of the crew.


	4. Why Can't I?

It was curious to Simon Tam that whilst he knew nothing of his name, where he came from, or anything about his supposed girlfriend, he had a complete medical knowledge that came to him just when needed. He presumed such things operated through instinct after many years of practice, and yet it still seemed odd that he could check for a concussion and patch up wounds without even really thinking about it, in spite of the fact he remembered nothing useful or concrete about his own identity.

“How’s he lookin’?” asked Kaylee, hovering by the door.

“I’m not sure,” he admitted, pulling up one of Adam’s lids and shining a light into his eye, before moving to the other. “We’ll know more when he wakes up,” he explained as he turned to face her. “I can’t find any broken bones and I’m pretty sure there’s no internal bleeding. It’s really all dependant on when he wakes now,” he repeated with a shrug, unsure what else he could do.

“I don’t know who to feel the worse for,” said Inara from her place by Kaylee, putting a comforting hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. “Adam, who is so badly hurt, or Brooke, who seems so distraught over it.”

“Can’t think what even happened,” said the little mechanic with a shake of her head. “They seemed so happy together and then... You really think Brooke coulda done this to him?” she asked in a whisper, craning her neck to see out into the hallway and check she hadn’t been heard.

“I honestly don’t know.” Inara shook her head, eyes fixed on Adam still. “I wonder if we ever truly will.”

“Cap’n’ll get the whole story outta his daughter” said Kaylee. “I’m sure on that.” She nodded firmly, though honestly she wasn’t sure how she could be so definite when she didn’t even know her own name a few hours before.

Down in the galley, sat at the table, Brooke was in the end seat, sobbing her heart out still, whilst her daddy, Captain James Harbatkin sat one side, with Zoe the other, both trying to be of some comfort to her.

They was hoping to get the full tale about what happened with her and Adam in the cargo bay, what had led to the big galloot lying in the infirmary with a whack to the head and all. Didn’t make a lick of sense to James, though he had some thoughts on what the hwun dahn might’ve tried with his daughter. That being said, he honestly couldn’t think how she would’ve laid him out in such a way, even if he had. Besides, it seemed the pair of them was all kinds of loved up. This all made less sense than anything else that had happened today, and that was saying something, given the circumstances.

“Brooke, bao bei,” James urged her, his hands at her shoulders, encouraging her to face him properly. “You gotta tell me what happened in that cargo bay, ‘cause right now, you’re scarin’ me just a little.”

“She can’t... I can’t...” she said, breathing erratically still, even as the tears began to subside. “She can’t comprehend.” She shook her head sadly.

“Honey,” said Zoe kindly, taking a hold of Brooke’s chin gently with her hand and turning her to look her way. “Did Adam try to hurt you or...?”

“No!” The poor girl’s answer was as instant and emphatic as ever an answer to a question had been. “Wouldn’t hurt. She didn’t want to harm, and he couldn’t ever...” she tried in vain to explain, but everything in her head was so muddled, too many emotions washing over her in great waves that she was too exhausted from crying to fight through. “They were happy,” she insisted, turning her gaze from Zoe to her father. “Happy and then... and then...”

_Earlier in the Cargo Bay..._

It was the freest she had felt in years, though how she knew that, Brooke couldn’t be certain. She ran on her feet, saw with her eyes, and laughed with her voice. She was a young woman in love and living a life she never wanted to change. Though she was being chased around the cargo bay, she wasn’t at all scared. The man that would catch her only wanted to do so to love and care and hold on tight forever in a warm and tender embrace. He was her Adam, her man, her love, and this was a game they played.

Brooke giggled as she hurried from her temporary hiding place, dodging around the weights in the corner that were no doubt Adam’s own. He appeared opposite her and they dodged left and right, her trying to avoid him and him determined to catch a hold of her. They had started all this when she took up teasing him that if she wanted to run away he’d never catch her. He insisted he could and had been duly put the test, the activity full of laughter and fun.

“Never catch her,” she told him, with a glint in her eyes, as she picked her moment to bolt from him once more.

She went full pelt up the steps, graceful as a bird in flight. He clearly hadn’t a notion how she moved so quick and never once toppled over, told her as much, wondering how she didn’t hurt herself at all, in spite of the fact she’d taken off her boots long ago.

“That ain’t in the rules!” he complained as he lumbered up the stairs behind her, but already she had run around the cat-walk above and was coming down another set of steps the other side.

Adam changed course, chuckling at her antics, apparently not at all annoyed by her trickery, but just all the more eager to catch up to her for more than one reason. First, he wanted to prove to her that he could, she supposed, and second, she suspected, he just wanted her.

“Maybe I give up,” he said, evidently plotting his own trick by now. “Maybe you ain’t worth all this chasin’ around,” he said with a wicked smile as he planted his feet definitely in the centre of the of the open space. “Just gonna stand me right here now and wait.”

“What is he waiting for?” asked Brooke with a slight frown as she came to stand half way down the stairs, watching him intently as he crossed his arms over his chest, determined in his stance.

“Seems to me if a thing’s worth chasing around so much, maybe it’s worth waitin’ for too,” he said, some kind of scrambled logic that somehow made sense when she took it in.

A grin spread over Brooke’s face as she realised she was the special thing he would both chase and wait for, filling her with that warm glow she was fast becoming accustomed too. Adam loved her so much, and she loved him just the same. She had never felt like this before, at least she was fairly certain she hadn’t. She felt as if she could fly, and tested the theory that perhaps she really could as she launched herself in spectacular fashion into Adam’s arms that opened just in time to catch her.

Had he not been so well-built, with muscles enough and strength to withstand her hitting him full force, the two of them would have gone sprawling. As it was, all that suffered was Adam’s button-down shirt that got torn as Brooke’s fingers tried to grab on to the nearest available hand hold - two handfuls of material that tore too easily in her grasp. Brooke gasped in shock at what she had done, and though Adam grumbled about her wrecking his clothes, he was all for telling her it was okay when she seemed to get tearful and all.

Brooke didn’t hear anything he said, no longer felt the warmth and joy that had filled her just moments before. Her brown eyes locked onto the blue symbol drawn on the T-shirt Adam wore beneath the shirt she had torn. She no longer existed and neither did he. There was no ship, no games, no family. She felt cold as ice as she lost her grip on reality, on her own mind and memories. Everything grew misty and then stark and blank.

Time passed, God only knew how much, and suddenly Brooke knew herself again, knew this place and why she was here. Something was missing, her lover's arms around her, and when she turned around she realised why. An ear-piercing scream escaped her lips and the hand that shot to her face was in no way enough to stop the whole ship hearing. There lay Adam on the metal of the ships deck, out cold.

_Back to the present..._

“She didn’t mean it, she didn’t want to hurt, never...” Brooke rambled on, desperate looks and cascading tears replacing the warmth and pretty smile that had lit up her face just moments before as she talked of hers and Adam’s playful games. She continued to mutter and cry, burying her head in her father’s shoulder as he held her tight.

Over Brooke’s head, Captain Harbatkin shared a worried look with his wife. Clearly something had caused Brooke to lose control, enough to do damage to a man twice her size and strength. That was more than a might worrying, not least because Brooke didn’t seem to know exactly what had happened her ownself.

Zoe got up, signalling she was going to see if Adam had come around yet. Hopefully he remembered more than Brooke did about what happened and could fill in the blanks between his shirt getting torn and his landing on the floor out cold. As it was, she never got into the infirmary, meeting Kaylee and Inara as they exited the room, closing the door behind them.

“He just came around,” said the little mechanic. “Simon needs to check him over some more.”

“Has he said anything about what happened down there?” asked Zoe, looking between the pair.

“Not very much,” said Inara with a shake of her head, peering down into the galley and mindful of being heard by Brooke or the Captain. “It seems that one moment the two of them were happily playing and the next... he said her eyes just went blank and she essentially attacked him.”

“But she’s just a little thing,” Kaylee said in earnest. “I don’t get how she laid him out that way, or why she would.”

“Well, we gotta figure that out, and the sooner the better I reckon.” Zoe sighed, heading back through to the galley with the other two women in tow, just as a voice came over the comm.

“Er, Cap’n?” said Hoban from the bridge. “You might wanna come on up here and see what’s happening. No panic but... yeah, you might wanna see.”

Zoe looked from James to Brooke and back.

“I’ll go,” she offered, seeing as his daughter was in no state to be left right now.

Of course, there was a chance Brooke was her own child too, though Zoe doubted it somehow. Seemed to her she must be borne of another woman and that maybe she was the captain’s second attempt at marriage, else she’d feel more connected than this. Either way, she couldn’t worry about it right now. Clearly, some kind of trouble was coming. There was an edge to Hoban’s voice when he spoke through the comm, just made all the hair on the back of her neck stick up.

Of course, that feeling gave way to something altogether different when Zoe stepped up onto the bridge and her eyes met his. There was something about Hoban that just bothered her, and as much as she thought maybe she knew what it was, she wasn’t yet willing to admit it to herself. She was a married woman after all.

“Cap’n’s otherwise engaged with his daughter right now,” she said, tearing her gaze from his own and stepping on up by the pilot’s seat. “What’s the trouble?”

“Not necessarily trouble.” Hoban shook his head, fiddling with a dial on the console in front of him. “Just, we seem to be picking up a signal here...”

He gestured towards the monitor and just as Zoe looked, the lines of interference crackled and almost formed a man’s face before disappearing again.

“A wave coming through?” she checked, sparing Hoban a glance and noting he was nodding in agreement.

“Could be a good thing. Helpful friendly folk who could help us out of a jam?” he considered.

“Or could be bad,” said Zoe, sensibly seeing this from both sides, as no doubt Hoban had done, else why call for James to come up here? “Could be folks that’d take advantage of our state of amnesia and such.”

The pilot watched the captain’s wife as she stared at the monitor, waiting to get a clear view of whoever was attempting to contact them. He’d have to be kwong-juh duh not to notice she was beautiful, and at the same time, so strong. It made Hoban wonder how she got along, being the wife of a captain who doubtless wanted to take charge of everything. She didn’t seem the type to be controlled too easily, had a mind of her own and liked to tell folk so, most likely.

Feeling his eyes staring at her, practically burning through her, Zoe turned her head from the screen to peer at Hoban. She meant to ask what his problem was, why he was staring, but the words stuck in her throat. Maybe she didn’t mind so much that he wanted to be looking at her that way, even if she knew she should.

“Hello?” said a voice that belonged to no-one onboard, and both pilot and captain’s wife suddenly turned as one to look at the monitor where the face of a man was now much more easily visible. “This is Captain Jin Boyd of the transport ship Saber...”


	5. When Shall We Know?

“This is Captain Jin Boyd of the transport ship Saber,” said the face on the screen, a man that neither Hoban nor Zoe recognised at all, but then to be fair they didn’t even know themselves or each other right now. “Me and my crew got ourselves in a spot, could use some help.”

He seemed genuine enough at least, or so Hoban figured, but there was no way to be sure.

“You think we should call for the captain?” he asked Zoe in a whisper, putting his hand over the camera that would allow them to be seen by this mysterious other captain sending them a wave.

“Not yet,” she said, pushing his arm away and looking straight into the lens. “Captain Boyd, what seems to be the problem?” she asked him, with no trace of emotion in her looks or tone.

“We’re runnin’ low on supplies, ma’am,” he told her simply. “Water systems packed up on us too, and I got me an injured man to see to,” he explained, briefly removing the hat he wore to push his fringe back out of his face. “Events seem to kinda snowballed on us. You’re the first life we seen out in these parts in days.”

Zoe wasn’t sure what to do for a few moments. This man seemed genuine, seemed he might be in all kinds of trouble, and yet at the same time the woman he was pleading with for help couldn’t help but wonder if Captain Boyd was really all he seemed. Her own step-daughter was turning out to be full of surprises, Zoe noted, there was no telling what trouble this stranger might bring with him.

“Turn off the comm,” she advised Hoban then.

The pilot didn’t waste a moment doing just that.

“We’re not gonna help them?” he asked, a little surprised by that, after all it seemed cruel and wrong not to at least investigate the situation some more.

“I don’t know,” answered Zoe, still staring at the screen even though it was now blank at her own request. “Seems to me that folks like us, flying so far out and under the radar of the Alliance, ain’t necessarily to be trusted,” she explained, her eyes then moving to meet Hoban’s own. “That’s true of us, might just be true of him too,” she said, with a gesture towards the screen which had shown Captain Boyd’s face just moments before. “I need to talk to the captain,” she said then, heading back towards the galley.

Hoban watched her go with a frown forming on his face. He didn’t doubt her reasoning, in fact he agreed with her assumptions. What had him confused was why they themselves should be thought of as bad people so easily, and also, why would the woman married to the captain call him ‘captain’ her ownself?”

* * *

“They cut us off, Cap’n,” said Marx, pilot of the Saber. “We lost connection completely.”

“They’ll be back,” said the woman stood behind Captain Boyd’s seat. “Trust me, they will,” she promised, leaning over his shoulder, her ample bosom on display for all to see as she spoke softly into his ear. “You do trust me, don’t you, sweetie?”

“Now what kinda man would I be if I didn’t trust my own wife?” Jin chuckled as he reached around to pull the little redhead into his lap. “Sure’n I’m wondrin’ still, how one so pretty could be so smart in the head too,” he told her with a sigh. “An’ why you picked a fella like me to wed, sweet Ophelia?”

“Why does a girl choose any man to be her husband, Jin?” she said softly, her eyes gazing into his own. “Because she loves him,” she lied like the pro she was.

How many husbands she’d had before him was anybody’s guess and how many aliases to go along with, she had lost count long ago. Yolanda, Saffron, Bridget to name but three in a long line that had been her name before Ophelia. She had trusted too many partners and accomplices in her time, when she should have just relied on her own charms and skills. A husband like Jin Boyd was all she really needed to get what she wanted.

He trusted her, the idiotic fool, and was helping her to get revenge on one of the few men who had gotten away from her, still with his ship and all. Not that her current husband had any clue that she was at all connected to this man he had met on their latest job.

Malcolm Reynolds needed to be taught a lesson and Ophelia was determined she would be the one to do it, even though the captain of Serenity himself would never have any clue she was involved. She would have his ship out from under him and away from Jin before either of them had even figured out who she really was. That made this job all the sweeter.

* * *

“I just thought we should maybe consider the possibilities of this crew not being all they seem,” Zoe explained to her husband about the contact she and Hoban had received.

It had taken her being quite forceful with him to get the captain to leave Brooke’s side for a second. Sure’n she understood his worries over his little girl, but Zoe also needed the man to be a husband and captain both. If this Captain Boyd was less than a reputable man, they couldn’t necessarily afford to risk letting him aboard Serenity. By the same token, Zoe wasn’t so sure she could be comfortable leaving possibly injured or desperate people floating out in the black unaided.

“You was right to come talk to me about this, Zoe,” he told her, sparing another glance at his daughter who sat at the table still, looking all kinds of sad and forlorn. “And right not to let anybody aboard here without us checking the situation first.”

As they continued discussing a possible way forward in his situation, James' eyes left Brooke long enough for her to get up from her seat and wander off.

Headed for the infirmary, she was soon stood by the door, gazing in to where her beloved Adam lay still. Brooke felt no anger coming from the room, no red hot fury for what she had done, and no fear of what she was or might be. Her brave fighting man was only worried about what all this meant. He lacked understanding of what the girl had done to him and why, needed answers and reasons she did not have herself yet. What she did have was an apology that she was more than willing to give, over and over until everything was forgiven, if not forgotten.

“She did not mean to cause harm,” she said softly from the doorway still, only her head and one hand visible to her man yet.

Though her voice was so quiet it could hardly be heard, her words came suddenly enough she still managed to startle Adam who had been laying there in silence thinking on what had happened today and why. Doc didn’t want him to move much until he got done checking for internal injuries, head trauma, and other stuff Adam had paid no mind to. Seemed to him he was the muscle of this here crew and most like suffered far worse before now than he had at the hands on his girl. Sure’n he still couldn’t make sense of how she managed to knock him out so easy though, little fragile thing like Brooke was. What bothered him more than that was why she’d flown into such a state as she had anyhow.

“He believes she is sorry?” she checked, edging into the room, honestly not sure if she was more afraid of him being mad at her or of what her own actions might be towards him if she lost control again.

“I believes ya, bao bei,” he told her, unable to help but be kind to her when she looked at him that way, all big eyes and sad looks. “Don’t change the fact I don’t understand what happened to us down there.” He shook his head slightly, mindful of the ache that existed in it still, in spite of all the drugs the doc had doubtless pumped into him.

“She wishes she could tell.” Brooke sighed, coming to stand behind her man where he lay on the bed, covered by a blanket. “Wishes she had a way to know.”

“Yeah, well if wishes were horses we’d all be eatin’ steak,” he told her with a pointed look. “Ain’t got no use for such things my ownself, don’t ever come true anyhow,” he said crossly, trying his hardest not to be mad at her but finding it just kept leaking out somehow.

No man was likely to be happy to get a kick to the head from a girl he’d done nothing but care for and be good to. The fact she was able to knock him flying in such a way didn’t do a thing for his ego nor male pride neither. Still, something in Adam made him just wanna tell Brooke it was all gonna be okay, to hold her tight and promise her the ‘verse.

“Hello,” said Simon awkwardly from the door, breaking the odd moment between the unlikely looking couple. “I’m sorry to interrupt, I... I just wanted to check on the patient.”

He smiled some, hoping to look friendly and helpful whilst feeling ill at ease as two pairs of eyes stared his way.

“Do what you gotta do, doc,” Adam urged him. “Faster I get out of this bed, better I’ll like it,” he told him definitely.

As Simon set about his tasks, he turned his attention to Brooke who was moving in silent ballet steps around the infirmary, observing both Adam and the doctor from every angle it would seem. She was thinking, calculating, and the more she did it the more she began to smile. Unfortunately, the look on her face appeared less cheerful and more eerie to those being observed and it wasn’t long before Adam lost his patience with the situation.

“What you starin’ at, girly?” he asked her outright and though he startled Brooke enough to knock the grin from her face, she was not at all offended by his abrupt tone - somehow she knew she was used to it and that it did not mean anything bad.

“She understands,” she began to explain, moving to the other side of the bed from Simon and reaching for Adam’s hand. “What she feels is true, deep, passion-filled,” she explained, as Simon almost blushed just listening to the simple words, “but she loves in more ways, different,” she went on, her other hand reaching out for the startled doctor.

“You feel it too?” he checked with a smile as she nodded in agreement.

“Familial,” she told him. “Fraternal.”

“What you two talkin’ on?” asked Adam, clearly baffled at he looked between them and not at all pleased about Brooke looking to Simon in such a way.

Even if he was still kinda mad at her for the way she lashed out at him like she had, didn’t change nothing. She was still his girl, just as far as they knew anyhow. Besides, the doc was meant to be tied to little Kaylee, from what he understood of it all.

“I think Brooke and I might be siblings.” Simon smiled genuinely as he looked between the girl and her so-called boyfriend. “I don’t know why, I just... I feel it.”

“She does too.” The girl smiled back just as bright, and though he couldn’t figure on how the two of them knew such a thing, Adam was just glad to know nobody was after taking his woman from him.

“This is a message to all crew,” said the captain’s voice, suddenly emanating from the comm. “We’re gonna need all those who are able-bodied to the cargo bay - we got us some visitors."


	6. Who Can You Trust?

“When I called for all able-bodied crew, I had a notion you’d stay put in that infirmary, Adam,” said Captain Harbatkin firmly as the larger man came carefully down the steps into the cargo bay, just a pace behind Simon and Brooke, the latter of which reached for her daddy’s offered hand as she came to stand alongside him.

“Feeling better,” she said with a smile, though it wasn’t entirely clear if she spoke for her man or for herself at that moment.

“I have checked Adam’s condition,” the doctor told James. “He’s fit enough to be here, Captain, I assure you. He clearly has a tougher head than most people.”

That caused a few giggles, amongst the girls in particular, at least until Brooke spoke up on a more serious but nonetheless happy topic.

“Made a connection.” She smiled wide. “Her daddy is his daddy too,” she said, gesturing between herself, James, and Simon.

The Captain wasn’t sure what to make of it. After all, the doc was older than Brooke, made him feel a might older his ownself if he truly was the boy’s father as well as hers. Still, he couldn’t exactly argue the point and he was mindful of bringing any more upset than was needed to this odd little family they seemed to be cultivating here. There was more to deal with right now than whatever relationships and family ties may or may not exist between the members of this crew.

“Yeah, I reckon on that making some kinda sense,” said James with a smile as he looked from Brooke to Simon and back - there was more than a similarity between their looks. “Not that I ain’t glad enough to call you my son,” he promised, putting a hand to the doc’s shoulder, “but right now ain’t the time for family reunions and all. We got ourselves a situation. ‘S the reason I called you all down here like I did.”

“We’re attached,” said Wash as he appeared on the staircase then, hurrying down to join the rest of the already assembled crew. “Our visitors will be knocking right there on our door in just a minute.”

“Do we know who these people are?” asked Inara with a clear look of concern.

“We surely do,” James assured her. “Least we got a name. Cap’n calls himself Boyd, got himself into a spot of trouble, so he says. A man o’ his needs seein’ to by a doctor.”

“But if’n he just needs Simon’s help, why’d we all get called down here?” asked little Kaylee as she looked from her man to the captain for an answer.

It was actually Zoe that spoke up next.

“We don’t know for sure if this Captain Boyd is telling the truth, mei mei. Since we can’t even be sure of our own names right now, there’s no tellin’ who this man is or what he might be here for.”

“Trust no-one,” said Brooke, visibly shivering as if cold or scared, though neither seemed obvious. “Guilty until proven innocent,” she said, her eyes fixed on the door, almost as though she was seeing through it to where the strangers were approaching.

“We gotta be ready for this to end bad, right?” Jayne checked he understood, reaching for the gun he’d picked up on the way down to the cargo bay.

Seemed to him he was built for fighting and chances were good his job aboard this ship was mostly protecting the rest of the crew. The gun in his hand felt as right as Brooke’s form in his arms. He just knew this was his place here, as sure as the worlds turned, as certain as he and his woman were meant to be, no matter how crazy she seemed.

“We gotta exercise a little caution, that’s for gorram sure,” said the captain, looking to each of his crew. “I wanted us all here since I ain’t right sure who’s best to read folk nor take down them that’d cause trouble,” he explained, at which each person nodded their understanding of his reasoning. “Now, my main point of concern here is that this injured man we’re to see to is a fake out. Simon, you check this man the moment he’s aboard, you find he’s not serious, I want you to make that plain without... well, making it too plain.”

“How would I do that?” asked the doctor, looking nervous.

“Signal word,” Zoe suggested easily. “If it seems like a set-up, you say some specific phrase that you wouldn’t otherwise need to say.”

“Such as?” Simon wanted to know.

“Well, I noticed you talk somewhat more fanciful than the rest of us,” said Kaylee, looking a might awkward when everybody stared at her, most especially Simon himself. “Maybe a slang word or a little cussin’? That’d tip us all off.”

“Right then, that’s settled,” the captain agreed with a nod of his head. “We hear any colourful language when Simon checks over the injured man, we be on our guard.”

“Thought we were already in that state o’ mind, honey,” said Zoe with a look.

“Well, you know, _extra_ guard.” Her husband shrugged. “And we got incoming.”

The knock came on the door then and, on the captain’s signal, Hoban hit the button to let their ‘guests’ enter the cargo bay.

It was tough to tell from looks alone if the crew of the Saber were trustworthy. After all, Captain Harbatkin had to admit he had kind of a motley bunch to watch over his ownself. Captain Jin Boyd sure was quick with a handshake and a smile, so that ought to be a good sign, and the rest of his crew, though armed, didn’t seem eager to make trouble.

“As you can see, our main problem is my man here,” said Boyd then, gesturing to a man who was leaning his weight heavily on another ship-mate. “We thought it was a clean break when it happened, but Elijah’s in more agony than ever. I’m no doctor, but I don’t think the wound looks so good and we don’t have the meds we need to treat it, so...”

“Got ourselves a doctor right here,” said James, reaching towards Simon and clapping him on the shoulder, so hard he almost caused him to stumble. “You wanna see what’s happenin’ with this man’s leg, son?” he said pointedly.

“Yes, sir.” Simon nodded once then moved towards the stranger, apologising in advance for any pain he might inadvertently cause as he got him into a seated position on a nearby crate and started to roll up his pant leg.

Though the others continued talking, carrying on conversation about supplies and the such like, Simon knew his own crew should be listening out for a signal, one he knew quite quickly he was going to have to give. It wasn’t just that he could see immediately that the so-called swelling and signs of infection on Elijah’s were entirely faked. It was mostly the gun that was suddenly in his face, out of sight of the others. It was why it came so easily to Simon to suddenly use some of those curse words that Kaylee seemed to think he didn’t know at all.

“Biaoziyangde!”

The moment the words were spoken, a half dozen guns were heard cocking throughout the cargo bay. Simon noticed Elijah’s attention had been taken and got himself out of harm’s way, dragging Kaylee with him until they were safely out of sight. He called for Brooke to hurry out of danger too, an instinct, he supposed, borne of the fact he was most likely her older brother. Still, Brooke didn’t seem at all inclined to pay any attention, despite the fact she wasn’t armed herself.

“We don’t want any trouble,” said Inara, stepping into the middle of things, her hands out, making placating gestures. “I’m sure there is no need for violence.”

“I’ll bet there is” said Adam with a scowl.

“Come on, now,” said Captain Boyd with a toothy grin. “The lady has a point here,” he said, indicating Inara. “We don’t want no trouble.”

“Then don’t point guns at my people,” Captain Harbatkin advised calmly, his own piece trained on his opposite number. “You come aboard my ship and do that, folks are gonna take offence.”

Before another word could be spoken, Brooke flew by her father, legs locking around Elijah’s throat as she swung him to the ground. Immediately, the rest of the Saber’s crew were on the attack, but not fast enough. James, Zoe, and Adam were all ready, guns in hand, and apparently all very good shots.

With Inara now safely behind the crates with Simon and Kaylee, and Hoban covering them as best he could, they watched wide-eyed while the others fought the intruders back as far as the doors.

Elijah had real injuries by now, as did another man and a woman besides. Captain Boyd seemed unharmed for the most part, but his second was clearly hurting, even though he was standing tall yet.

“It didn’t have to be like this, Reynolds,” said Boyd, shaking his head. “You know, you just made it harder on yourselves!”

“Get off my boat and don’t come back!” James told them firmly, punching the button for the airlock and ensuring they were all out before he closed it again and let his eyes leave the target. “Everybody here in one piece?” he checked then.

“Safe and sound, Cap’n,” Kaylee promised as the unarmed members of the crew came out from their hiding place. “Seems like the right folks had their hands on guns.”

“Seems some folks don’t need weapons at all,” said Zoe, eyeing little Brooke.

“Well, no time for that now,” said the captain, clearing his throat. “Hoban, take us out o’ here. I don’t want Boyd to get a chance to consider blowing us outta the sky with whatever he might have aboard that ship o’ his. We got troubles enough without holes in the hull.”

“Yes, sir,” the pilot agreed, rushing off to the bridge.

Most people in the cargo bay were still staring at Brooke, who in turn stared down at her own body, as if wondering at what it had done, just the same as everyone else. She recovered quickly, and all of a sudden, as her brown eyes came up to meet those of her supposed father.

“Reynolds,” she said, staring hard. “That’s what he said.”

“Yeah, I noticed that too.” He nodded in agreement. “Makes me wonder a bit,” he admitted, looking back towards the closed doors through which the Saber’s crew had passed. “Does make me wonder.”

* * *

“Oh, come on, Ophelia. We did what you asked!” Jin Boyd complained when his wife continued to curse him out in colourful Chinese phrases. “The doctor boy knew somethin’ was up so fast, and the crew was all ready for a fight. So much for your liquor to make ‘em stupid!”

“Malcolm Reynolds doesn’t need any help to be stupid!” his wife argued, eyes aflame to match her red hair as she yelled up into his face. “The problem is you! I told you not to say his name, but oh no, you had to do it. Now he’s going to figure everything out, you feh feh pi goh!”

Jin scratched the back of his neck as he gave that one some thought. “You just said he was stupid, and now he’s so smart he’s gonna bust open our whole plan?” he checked.

“Ugh! You’re impossible!” his wife exclaimed, waving her arms around wildly. “I don’t know why I ever married you!”

“Oh, don’t be that way, sweet Ophelia,” he begged, coming to stand behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. “You know there’s nothin’ I wouldn’t do to make you happy,” he promised, kissing her neck. “You want that ship, you’ll get it. We’ll see to it somehow. That stuff last three days, right? And the boys will be all fixed up in a couple o’ hours. We’ll figure something out.”

Ophelia sighed then turned in his arms to look at him. “You better figure this out, husband,” she said pointedly, reaching up to take his face in her hands, “because if you don’t... let’s just say, you’re going to lose more than your conjugal rights.”

Boyd blanched at the very notion of what she was implying, but then a salacious grin took over his face. “Speakin’ o’ my conjugal rights...”

* * *

It was the night cycle aboard Serenity and all the crew were looking to get some rest at last. Zoe, for one, was hoping that perhaps, on waking from a good night’s sleep, she might just get her memory back. Certainly, she did not feel comfortable about all the assumptions made so far amongst the crew, even less so now she was changing her clothes and preparing to climb into bed with the captain.

To be fair, he didn’t look altogether any more comfortable than she did, and when finally, they were both lying there beneath the covers, it didn’t seem to occur to him or her to do anything about the good twelve inches of space between their bodies.

“Well, I guess this is goodnight,” said James awkwardly.

“Yes, goodnight,” Zoe agreed, forcing a smile, before turning onto her side away from him.

She felt him do the same and sighed with relief. Surely, this was not what marriage should be like? Zoe found herself thinking of the other men aboard, how perhaps it might’ve been better to find herself married to one of them. She didn’t even feel guilty when her wandering thoughts led her to Hoban, presumably sat alone at the consoles on the bridge still.

She could have no idea how accurate the picture in her mind was, except the pilot was no longer quite so alone as she might think.

“I’m sorry to disturb you,” said Inara, stepping up onto the bridge. “I just... I couldn’t sleep and I assumed somebody had to be up here,” she confessed, coming to take the co-pilot’s seat.

“Not sure how reliable the auto-pilot is, and with these folks around that might wanna shoot us out of the sky or something.” Hoban shrugged. “Seemed safer to stay up.”

He looked to Inara then to find her staring at him. Their eyes met and they each saw the same lonelineness reflected back. Still, if either one had any ideas of finding comfort in each other, it was quelled in an instant. They both wanted something, but instinctly they knew, that something was not each other.

Such a thing were hardly true far and away down the hall, where Kaylee was practically on top of Simon, hoping to get exactly where she was hoping to go. She was a little affronted to find he was actively pushing her hands away the moment they strayed to his belt.

“Kaylee, don’t,” he urged her. “It’s not... proper.”

“Proper?” she echoed, sitting up fast and staring wide-eyed at him. “What’s proper have to do with such a thing? We like each other well enough. We’re sweeties, aren’t we?”

“Well, yes,” Simon awkwardly agreed, sitting up now that she was no longer holding him down, and running a hand over his mussed up hair. “I mean, I like you, very much, and clearly, you like me too, but it’s just... I don’t know,” he admitted, looking down at his hands that were in his lap now and fidgeting too. “I have a feeling that... that I’d like us to be married before we... Before,” he said pointedly as he glanced at her, sure he was blushing but not knowing how to stop it.

The grin that had come over Kaylee’s face seemed to suggest she was about to laugh at him, and that made Simon feel sick, until he realised the expression wasn’t amusement, it was elation.

“Is that a proposal, doctor?” she asked giddily.

“Oh, I wasn’t...” he began, before quickly reconsidering. “Well, I suppose, it is, actually, yes. Do you want to marry me, Kaylee?” he asked her more plainly then.

“Simon, of course, I want to!” she declared happily. “Yes!”

She was back on top of him in a second, kissing him until he could hardly catch his breath, and honestly, Simon forgot to mind as he kissed her back with equal fervour. He really did love Kaylee so much. It was one thing he was quite sure of, despite having no memories to cling to. As plain to him as the fact that being a doctor was his vocation in life or that Brooke was his sister.

“Sound happy,” said the girl herself from the next room down the hall. “Brother and his beloved.”

“Guess they ain’t got much to be _un_ happy about,” said Adam from the door, not even bothering to ask how Brooke knew he was there.

Seemed to him there were a whole lot of things about the little woman he didn’t understand, and it wasn’t as if she could tell him with how things stood, nobody having any idea who they were and whatnot. Still, there was one thing he was sure of. Until they figured out where the violence in Brooke came from and how she might learn to control it, he wasn’t so sure he could sleep alongside her, no matter how tempting the idea might be.

“I’ll say goodnight to ya then,” he said, moving to walk away. “Sweet dreams and all.”

“Sweeter if he stayed,” she told his back. “She didn’t mean... Can’t explain how and why,” she admitted, sighing heavily, “but know what she feels for him. Knows it runs deeper than anything else.”

Adam stopped, barely a pace from the door, and turned back at the sound of those words. Seemed wrong to walk away from a willing woman, even more stupid to run from one who actually cared about him, that he cared for too. Though he couldn’t know it for sure, Adam felt, deep inside, he hadn’t had a whole lot of caring done for him in his life, nor cared for too many folks himself either. Maybe that was something he and Brooke had in common, though he doubted it. After all, she had family here, didn’t she?

“Ain’t that I don’t... ‘S not so simple, girly,” he told her, shaking his head.

“He’s afraid,” Brooke said sharply.

Adam bristled at the accusation. “I ain’t scared o’ you nor anyone,” he said firmly, striding back into the room and shutting the door behind him. “Don’t you ever say that kinda niou-se about me again.”

Brooke smiled slightly, moved over to lie down on the other side of the bed without a word. Adam, despite his better judgement, kicked off his boots and lay down beside her, not afraid to touch her but thinking better of doing so until maybe she decided she wanted to be closer. No sooner had the thought passed through his head than Brooke turned over to face him, throwing an arm across his middle and pillowing her head on his chest. Like the most natural thing in the world, he put his arms around her too, and together, they found some peace for a while/


	7. What Does It Mean?

Adam woke to soft lips moving against his own and a warm body atop of him. Didn’t really spend a whole lot of time thinking on why or how it happened, just went with his instincts, gripping the willing woman tighter and kissing her back with everything he had.

Only when her hair fell in his face and she whispered words into his ear did his mind catch up with the rest of him and his eyes shot open with alarm.

“Surprised him,” said Brooke, giggling as she saw his expression. “Happy surprise?”

Something about the way she said it more than what she said made Adam shudder beneath her. She certainly was a surprise, pretty much every second, but he didn’t mind it so much. For all that she had bothered him some when she cracked him in the head, before and since that, she’d been nothing but loving and sweet.

Seemed to him that when danger come, or something her instinct told her might be danger, she lashed out. Rest part of the time, when she could keep control, she just wanted to love and be loved. Though he didn’t know how he knew it, since none of them remembered a damn thing about anything, Adam was sure they were kindred somehow. That he knew what it was to need to be wanted this way, mostly living on instinct and his wits, never trusting no-one. Nobody but her.

“Y’ain’t right,” he told her, shaking his head, “but you’re my kinda not right, girly,” he said, smiling up at her.

When she kissed him again, he kissed her right back, consequences be damned.

* * *

As Zoe stepped in through the door to the bridge, she misjudged how open said door was. It shifted a little, sliding over into the fully open position with a clang, startling the poor pilot who woke with a start and a snort both.

“Apologies,” she said as Hoban turned fast to look at her. “Didn’t reckon on you bein’ up here so early.”

“Is it early?” he checked, running a shaky hand over his face. “I... I didn’t actually go anyplace. Didn’t like to leave us just floating since...”

Hoban’s words all went away as he stared at Zoe then. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed easily enough before that she was gorgeous, but now, in only the skimpy things she presumably wore to sleep in and a robe thrown over the top that was more open than shut, it had never been more clear how truly goddess-like she really was.

“You had company,” she said, eyes scanning the console and finding two cups present.

Hoban could hardly dare think she cared about that. After all, this was the captain’s wife. If she was bothered by his having company, chances were good it was only so she could admonish him for fraternising on the job.

“I, uh... Inara came by,” he explained, clearing away the cups, as well as the plastic dinosaurs and such that were scattered around. “So, did you need something?”

“Not from you,” Zoe explained, realising very quickly how much skin she was showing to an audience of not-her-husband and fixing that situation. “I was just walking around, gettin’ the lay of the land, maybe. I don’t know, I just couldn’t sleep, and thinkin’ about that Captain Boyd and all, makes me uneasy.”

“Yeah, that’s a weird situation,” Hoban agreed, clearing his throat and turning back towards the view outside as Zoe sat down in the co-pilot’s chair. “Of course, nothing’s weirder than none of us knowing who we are, so...”

Zoe laughed at that. “It’s a might strange, I must say,” she agreed. “All I know is, I look out at that sky and I can’t imagine bein’ anyplace else. No doubt in my mind, this ship, this crew - it’s home, it’s family.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Hoban agreed, looking more at Zoe than the view by now.

When she finally must have felt his eyes on her and turned to meet his gaze, something seemed to shift in the air. There was no way Hoban could have said what it was, but whatever it may be, it was more than simply him knowing Zoe was physically attractive. Lust he understood, this was altogether something else, and yet, she was the captain’s wife, as far as they could tell.

On Zoe’s side, she was just as sure something was happening here, but wasn’t willing to put a name to it. Of all the men aboard, it wasn’t as if the pilot was the toughest or even necessarily the most handsome, but there was something about him, something that just... bothered her.

“You know, it’s the funniest thing,” he said then, smiling her way, “and I know, all the information we’ve found out so far, it seems like we have the right names, the right roles, but I don’t...”

He stopped short of saying more and Zoe wasn’t sure whether she was sad or glad about that. She certainly felt she knew what he meant. Everything should be becoming clearer as time went on, but it wasn’t, it was only getting more and more muddled.

“I should go,” she said, standing fast and moving swiftly to the door.

“I know this probably doesn’t mean much,” Hoban called behind her. “I mean, your husband being the captain and all, you got the run of this boat, but... well, you’re welcome up here any time. I won’t mind.”

Zoe paused in the doorway, looked back and smiled slowly. “Thank you, Hoban,” she said, nodding her head and then walking swiftly away before she said or did something really stupid.

* * *

When he first woke up, Simon was a little confused as to where he was and what was going on, then he felt someone shift against him and looked down to see a beautiful girl curled into his side. Then he remembered. Not everything, of course, but enough. He remembered last night, when Kaylee had been so keen to drag him into bed and, in some attempt to be a gentleman, he had sworn he would not until they were married. It seemed she had worn him down in the end, on the strength of an engagement at least.

“Hmm, mornin’,” said Kaylee herself, eyes open now and gazing up into his own. “You doin’ okay, Simon?” she checked, clearly noting the odd expression he was doubtless wearing.

“I... I am,” he promised her, unable to resist the opportunity of kissing her. “Kaylee, last night...”

“Last night was pretty much perfect, Dr Tam,” she told him happily. “I mean, wasn’t it?” she checked then, oddly nervous for one who had been so confident just hours before, in the heat of passion.

“It was,” he assured her, holding her close. “You do know that... that I love you, Kaylee, and that the only thing that could make me happier than this, will be the day when we actually are married?”

Though it ought to have been impossible, her grin grew two-fold at the sound of those words. She propped herself up on her elbow and stared down at him with true joy and love in her eyes, all for him.

“Well, I got no notion to go wanderin’ at all,” she assured him. “So, I guess we could talk to the captain, make things real official?”

It seemed like madness, Simon was well aware. Becoming engaged to a woman, spending the night with her, and in the morning, deciding to actually get married, in that moment, perhaps later that same day. All this, when he could neither firmly recall his own name or hers, nor where they came from or why they were here. It had to be some kind of insanity, and yet, when he opened his mouth to say as much, those were not the words he said.

“Yes,” he told her instead. “Kaylee, I would love to marry you, today, if the captain is willing. I love you.”

She didn’t say it back right then and there, but then he didn’t need for her to. In her eyes, he saw the truth of her feelings, in her kiss he felt it too. Though all else was hazy and uncertain, their love was true. Simon had no doubts about that whatsoever and was sure he never would.

* * *

Captain James Harbatkin was only mildly concerned when he woke to find the bed beside him empty. His wife certainly didn’t seem like the type to need much assistance with anything and certainly wouldn’t be asking permission if she wanted to do something. Not that he expected a wife to be so subservient in any case, but he suspected Zoe wouldn’t stand for it even if he was to try.

She was the warrior woman type, that much was clear from the get go, and it wasn’t as if James didn’t understand the attraction to that, but there was something, just something niggling at him about the whole marriage thing. He trusted Zoe with his life, would hardly have slept alongside her if he did not, but there was just... something.

“Maybe I miss my first wife?” he muttered to himself as he got out of bed.

After all, he had to have been with somebody else before Zoe. He was Brooke's daddy, seemed maybe he was Simon’s father too, but they were as pale skinned as James himself, so hardly likely to have come from Zoe’s loins. He recoiled a little at the thought of her in that way and wondered why. She was his wife, wasn’t she?

Running a hand over his face, James considered all they had learned in the past couple of days, about themselves and what they were all doing aboard the ship. Their roles in the crew seemed pretty set and definite, but all the names and relationships, he was starting to wonder on a few of those.

After all, hadn’t that Boyd fella called him Reynolds when he left? Not Harbatkin as he believed his name to be. Then there was the fact all Simon’s belongings had the last name of Tam on them. That could be his mother’s maiden name, of course, or maybe they all used aliases for some reason?

Standing up from the bed, James went over to the far wall and made use of the in-built facilities, relieving himself first, then washing his hands and face. Seemed to him there was a lot still to figure out and sitting around his own bunk wondering on things wasn’t helping. Probably best he spent his time with the crew, see if anybody remembered anything useful after a good night’s sleep.

James pulled on his shirt and pants then moved over to the ladder to head on up. He stopped with his foot on the bottom rung, turning back to survey the room a little. His head tilted to one side as he looked at first the floor, then the bed, and the various items on the shelves spread about. Something was coming to him, something but he wasn’t sure what. A memory, perhaps, though it was hazy and he couldn’t quite catch a hold of it.

Shaking it off, James ascended the ladder, appearing in the hallway just as Inara walked by.

“Mornin’,” he greeted her, with a polite nod of his head.

“Captain,” she replied in kind. “I hope you slept well.”

“Well enough” he assured her. “And yourself?”

“I wish I could say the same. I was plagued by the most astonishingly graphic dreams,” she noted, turning her face away even as she said it.

“Graphic how?” James frowned, before recalling what she had said about her profession before. “Oh, _graphic_ ,” he said, blinking fast.

“Hardly surprising, I suppose,” she said, looking away. “In my line of work. I assume much of what I dreamt are actually memories, though unfortunately, none amongst them gave me any concrete information that might help me to understand what happened to us all.”

“’M sure we’ll figure it out, given time,” James told her, shifting awkwardly inplace. “Maybe when we get to this Whitefall place later on?”

Inara nodded in agreement, then turned to go, though thankfully staying put when the captain spoke up again.

“’Nara, I... I wanna apologise for what I said yesterday, ‘bout your bein... well...”

“A whore?” she said frankly, looking back to meet his eyes. “Don’t trouble yourself, Captain. Though I can’t remember, I’m positive I must’ve been called that before, perhaps even worse.”

“Yeah, but that ain’t even... I’m just sorry, okay?” he tried again, hands raised in placating gestures. “I’m sure you’re a very fine young woman with a great many pleasing qualities that many a man would pay for, given the chance.”

Honestly, he still wasn’t sure he was saying the right thing even then, but the captain had a notion that no matter what he said, Inara might not be best pleased. She had that air about her, an elegance and grace of someone very high-class, whatever her profession proved to be.

“Look, Inara...”

Before he could say more there was a clattering commotion of footsteps rushing down the hallway, distracting James. By the time he looked back to Inara, he realised she was gone. In front of him now were a pair of grinning young faces, belonging to Kaylee and Simon.

“Cap’n, we have somethin’ we need to ask of ya,” she said, giggling like a child.

“And what might that be?” he asked, looking between them.

“We were hoping, if you don’t object, of course,” said Simon, clearing his throat before he went on. “That is to say, sir... father... I asked Kaylee to be my wife last night, and this morning, we decided we don’t want to delay in making it official. As captain of this ship, we wondered... would you marry us?”

“A-ya!” James gasped. “I mean, are you young folks sure you wanna... without even bein’ sure who you are right now? Son, think about this...”

“There’s really nothing to think about,” Simon insisted, shaking his head. “For all the things that I am so unsure about right now, Kaylee is not one of them,” he said definitely, smiling at his bride-to-be. “I love her.”

“Ain’t it shiny?” Kaylee giggled, gripping Simon’s hand all the tighter it seemed.

“Yeah, I can’t say that it’s not,” the captain admitted, “and I guess if y’all are determined to be wed, I can prob’ly do that,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay then, on top of all o’ this, I guess we’re havin’ a weddin’!”


	8. Where in the ‘Verse?

“We got a couple of hours before we need to start our descent,” said Hoban as he ran down the steps into the cargo bay. “How long does it take for people to be wed anyway?”

“Uh, I’m guessin’ not long?” said the captain uncertainly, peering over Zoe’s shoulder at the hand-held device connected to the Cortex. “This gonna be legal?” he asked his wife next.

“Yes, dear,” she said, handing him the device and patting him on the shoulder. “Captain of a ship is qualified for officiating. Say all the things right here, get the happy couple to do their part, and they’re wed.”

“Shiny.” James nodded, reading over what he had to say and do.

If nothing else, he figured all this wedding stuff was a good distraction from what else was going on. So far, the Saber seemed to be keeping its distance and that was all well and good, but who knew what would happen when they got as far as this Whitefall place?

Besides, the more time went on, the more suspicious the captain got that things were not all that they seemed aboard the good ship Serenity. Folks did seem happy enough, for the most part, even if they were lacking some memories. Surely, none were so happy as Simon and little Kaylee, which is why he had no problem getting them wed if that was what they wanted. Felt right somehow, which was more than James could say for his own marriage.

Zoe was a good woman, he was sure he trusted her with his life, but looking upon her as someone to sleep alongside as well as live alongside didn’t altogether sit right with him. He couldn’t think why he married her if he didn’t want to. Wasn’t even as if she was the mother of his children. Of course, that was a conversation best had later on, a fact he was reminded of as Inara came down the stairs into the cargo bay, smiling widely.

“The bride is ready,” she told James, Zoe, and Hoban. “And she looks quite beautiful.”

“Don’t doubt it,” the captain told her, though in truth he was marvelling at the elegance and grace of the companion herself more than thinking of Kaylee in such a moment. “Uh, I guess we better rustle us up a groom then.”

“He is here,” said Brooke from the far door, standing beside Adam and grinning widely as she ushered her brother forward towards the others.

He was pretty dressed up his ownself, and just a little nervous around the edges, the captain noticed. Placing a firm hand on the boy’s shoulder, he gave him an encouraging smile.

“You doin’ okay, son?”

“Yes, sir.” Simon nodded once. “I know a lot is unknown at this point in time, but I couldn’t be more sure about this, about Kaylee,” he said definitely.

“That’s all I needed to hear.” James smiled, just as Kaylee appeared on the catwalk above and began her descent, dressed to the nines in pale silk with flowers in her hair.

All eyes were on the bride as she stepped off the bottom of the staircase, assisted by Hoban, and then took her place beside Simon.

“You look beautiful,” her husband-to-be promised her.

“Lookin’ pretty swai yourself, doc,” she told him with a giggle.

“Well, here goes,” said James, glancing between them and then down at the screen in his hand. “Folks, we are gathered here to celebrate the union of Simon and Kaylee...”

* * *

“It’s gotta be Whitefall they’re headed for. Ain’t nowhere else that trajectory is gonna take ‘em,” said Marx from the pilot seat of the Saber.

“You can get us there before them, you do it,” Captain Boyd told him definitely. “I don’t care what it takes.”

“I push much harder, we’ll as like burn out that second engine as not,” his pilot told him with no small amount of concern.

“You didn’t hear what I just said?” Boyd countered. “I don’t care what it takes, just do it! Yi dwei da buen chuo roh,” he muttered, striding away.

“Where did you even find these people?”

He turned sharply to find Ophelia around the corner from the door he just came through, hands on her hips like she meant business as she faced him.

“Seems to me they’re all just as yu bun duh as each other, and if we lose that ship again-”

“We won’t,” he promised, taking her by the hands and pulling her closer. “You trust your husband, don’t you, sweetheart?”

“Perhaps,” Ophelia told him, resisting when he tried to take her in his arms, “but trust has to be earned, Jin. When I married you, you did promise me _anything_ I wanted,” she reminded him.

“I did that,” he agreed, nodding his head. “You want that ship, sweet Ophelia, you know I’ll get it for you. We can be on Whitefall ‘fore Serenity ever lands, and with them folks not even knowing who they is right now, shouldn’t be too hard to convince the locals to be on our side if things should turn... unfortunately nasty,” he said, walking his fingers up her arm to her shoulder and into her hair.

“Mmm, I do love a good fight.” Ophelia smiled wickedly, turning her head to kiss his palm. “Especially when the right people win.”

This time when Boyd tried to pull her closer, she let him, her body colliding with his chest, lips finding his in a searing kiss. Oh yes, when this was over, everybody was going to get exactly what they wanted... except maybe for Malcolm Reynolds, of course.

* * *

“Still don’t like that we’re goin’ in blind.”

“Trust me, Zoe, it don’t please me none either,” her husband assured her as they both got prepared to disembark at Whitefall. “I figure we split the crew down the middle, some left aboard to guard the ship, some dirtside, trying to find out why we’re here and maybe clear up the whole ‘why we have no memories’ situation. It’s about the best we can do right now.”

“Maybe I should stay behind,” Zoe considered, wondering at the way James’ eyes grew wide. “I ain’t questioning your abilities to captain, dear,” she assured him fast, “but if we’re tryin’ to divide and conquer, makes sense to have as many fighters here as out in the world.”

“Makes some sense.” James nodded. “You got any further ideas as to the division o’ things?”

Zoe shrugged, paying more attention to the weapon she was loading that her husband at all. “Seems to me if you go dirtside, maybe take Adam or Brooke, leave the other here with me, maybe let Kaylee and Simon have their wedding night aboard, ask Inara if she might want to take a wander out in the world. One thing I do remember is the respectable nature of Companions. Might not hurt for you to have her along.”

James couldn’t exactly deny those were all good points, so he didn’t try to. “And Hoban?” he asked, realising he was the one man not yet accounted for.

“Makes sense to have the pilot with the ship, I expect, though can’t say as I thought about him much one way or the other,” said Zoe, cocking the rifle in her hands with a crack and making sure it was ready to go if someone did come looking to cause trouble on their ship.

If James had a mind to argue with her before, he sure as gorram hell didn’t now.

* * *

Captain Jin Boyd of the Saber had thought he was getting somewhere with the woman in charge of Whitefall, until he finished his speechifying to her and old Patience spat tobacco juice at his feet.

“You young ‘uns are all the same,” she said, shaking her head. “Come down onto my rock and start actin’ like you’re owed somethin’, like you know gorram everythin’.”

Jin wasn’t sure how he felt about being called young, after all, he had three decades behind him and some change. Of course, to a person of Patience’s years, he supposed he was practically a kid. Not that any amount of respect for his elders would mean he was prepared to be treated like a child at all. He come here with a plan and he’d be damned if he didn’t see it through.

“I’m sure you’re that much smarter than I am, ma’am,” he said over-politely, “but I am willing to pay for the favour I’m asking of you and your... men,” he said, eyeing the motley crew with distaste. “You’ll be aptly compensated, I promise you.”

“Oh, you’ll pay, son.” Patience chuckled, showing off her yellowed teeth. “That much I am certain of.”

* * *

“Not comfortable” said Brooke, worrying her lip. “Not what it seems,” she insisted, as the large cargo bay door dropped down to form a ramp that would take those that were going dirtside out into the world.

Brooke was not one of those people, which is what seemed to have her all riled up. Captain Harbatkin had given her and Adam the choice of which one stayed and which one went, though it seemed pretty plain to all that he would prefer his daughter be safe rather than sorry, despite knowing she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

On top of that, Adam had insisted he just hadn’t seen enough action yet and was determined to get his turn at a fight. Apparently, the scuffle with the crew of the Saber weren’t enough to satisfy him. Brooke, on the other hand, though perfectly capable of violence, had said she wasn’t exactly a fan of it.

“Sweetheart, you trust your daddy now, don’t ya?” said the captain, his hand at her shoulder as he met her wide dark eyes as she nodded her ascent. “That’s my good girl,” he said with a smile, leaning in to kiss her forehead. “Now, you stay aboard, keep Hoban company maybe, but mind you don’t go disturbin’ the newlyweds, you hear?”

“She will behave.” Brooke nodded solemnly. “But he must promise too, they all must. Double crossers and liars,” she said, eyes straying the sandy landscape beyond Serenity. “Wolves in the world.”

“Don’t you worry none, bao bei,” Adam told her, cocking his gun. “Ain’t nothin’ out there we ain’t ready for.”

James looked equally as prepared for battle, and though she was hardly dressed for a fight, or for the harsh conditions of Whitefall, really, even Inara seemed as if she could take on anyone or anything else as she walked purposefully down the ramp with her head held high.

“Maybe I should come along with you folks,” said Zoe at the last, glancing over her shoulder at who was left behind and who was going. “Didn’t exactly split the crew as even as we thought,” she noted, eyes mostly on Hoban - it was tough for anyone not to notice.

“Reckon we got the best set-up we can here,” the captain insisted. “Don’t worry now, pretty sure things’ll work out.”

As he walked away then, with Inara and Adam, Hoban stepped up beside Zoe and Brooke at the top of the ramp and sighed.

“I don’t know what it is about ‘don’t worry’ that just makes me worry more,” he said, scratching the back of his head. “Is that normal?”

“I wouldn’t know,” said Zoe stiffly, turning sharply on her heel and walking away.

Brooke looked between them, rolled her eyes, then exited just the same, leaving a baffled Hoban in her wake.


	9. Why Would You Want To?

“Well, if it ain’t good old James Harbatkin.”

The woman chuckled in such a way on their approach that all the hackles went up on the back of the captain’s neck. It was strange how she seemed altogether familiar and not at the same time, but he had a mighty large dose of that kind of thing these past couple of days.

“Seems you were expectin’ us then,” said James, being sure not to make mention of the fact that he had no idea why he was actually on Whitefall or who in the gorram ‘verse this gnarled old woman staring down at him actually was.

“You ever doubt me, boy? Far and wide in this old ‘verse, people know the name Patience, and they don’t underestimate me.”

“I’m sure the captain would never do such a thing,” said Inara smoothly. “You have quite the location here,” she added, forcing a smile as she looked over the barren land on all sides.

“Nothin’ so fancy.” Patience shrugged, adjusting the rifle in her hands. “But it’s mine and that’s how I like it. Seems to me that when certain folks come lookin’ to take what somebody else has earned for themselves, oughta be put down before they get the chance to try anythin’ dumb.”

There was something about the way she said it, not to mention the signalling of the man beside her, back into the gang that waited for orders. If James hadn’t noticed, Adam certainly seemed to, clapping the captain on the shoulder and drawing his attention, perhaps not quite as subtly as he should have.

“You know me, Patience,” said the captain, sure that she had to, since she seemed awful set on doing him the favour of keeping him and his out of some kind of double-cross or ambush. “Trouble just seems to follow me around.”

“Don’t I know it?” she said, shifting her horse over just a step and then blaming the animal for it. “I swear, this beast is a burden to me. If I could find better, I’d shoot him... right between the eyes.”

Her meaning seemed awful clear to James, who nodded once that he understood, and never even flinched when the gang before him parted ways like the Red Sea before Moses. Quick as a flash, he had his gun drawn and fired right dead centre into those that remained before him. A man dropped backwards off his horse, probably not dead, but sure as hell not feelin’ too great.

Inara had the good sense to duck and cover, though there was a weapon in her hand pretty soon, as she played her own small role in firing back at the attackers. Patience and her crew departed fast, clearly happy to abandon the fight now it had begun. Not that James could blame them. This was the second gunfight he found himself in, inside of two days, and truth to say, he wasn’t enjoying himself all that much.

Adam was different. That man seemed to take great joy in firing a gun and throwing a punch. He did it real well too, which left James in no doubt of why he kept him around on-board ship. There had to be a reason, because he knew he didn’t much care for the relationship between the man and young Brooke, that was for sure.

Not that now was the time to be thinking of such things. Fighting back to back with Adam, the captain of Serenity was glad to note that the members of the attacking crew were out for the count by now. Seemed to him that it was Captain Jin Boyd, if in fact that was his real name, who had yet to get up from his fall from the horse, and each of the four others, all members of his crew, were either unconscious or tending to wounds that kept them on the ground for now.

Inara stepped out of her hiding place, pistol whipping the one female member of the gang who was about to rise up again, sending her to the dust with a headache and a lack of consciousness.

“These are the same people who attacked us aboard the ship,” she noted.

“Noticed that my own self.” James nodded, gun still in his hand yet, just in case. “Seems to me these folks got a real yearnin’ to start trouble with our crew. Question is, why is that?”

He looked from Inara to Adam, as if expecting an answer, though he already knew they couldn’t give him one. That said, there was an awful strange look on Adam’s face that he might’ve questioned some more, if not for a sudden stirring of the other captain amongst them.

James stalked over to where Boyd laid on his back in the dirt, hand pressed to a sizeable hole through his other shoulder.

“Seems to me you got a problem with me and my crew,” he said, leaning over the man, pistol cocked in his face. “Also, seems you ain’t too bright when it comes to the best way to attack folks. Got yourself beat twice now. Might make a smarter fella think on before tryin’ a third time.”

Laughter from the other man’s lips sure was unexpected. James was seriously starting to think this guy might be more than a little whimsical in the brainpan. That assumption didn’t go anywhere at all when he started talking.

“You always did think you were just so smart, _Harbatkin_ ,” he spat, chuckling even then. “You’re gonna rue the day you crossed me. More’n that, you’ll wish you never hurt my darlin’ Ophelia.”

“A-feel-o’-ya, what now?” asked Adam with a frown.

Inara rolled her eyes but said nothing, sure there was little to no point.

“Wish I had a notion what you were talkin’ about, Boyd.” James shook his head. “Now, you can explain, if’n it makes you feel better, or we can just walk away from whatever mess of trouble this is and call it even. I got no quarrel with you.”

“Oh, you’ll have a quarrel, ung jeong jia ching jien soh.” Boyd sneered, pulling himself up to sitting.

James backed up one step, gun aimed and ready even then, as Adam and Inara kept their eyes on the rest of the crew.

“This isn’t all of the men who attacked us the last time, is it?” said Inara suddenly. “Surely, there were more?”

“Six or seven, far as I recall.” Adam nodded, eyes darting around at the scene. “Tzao-gao! The rest of ‘em went for the ship!”

Boyd’s laughter rang true behind them, proving they were right. This wasn’t just an attack, it was a double-cross, a diversion. Other members of the Saber’s crew were no doubt aboard Serenity right now, with only Zoe and a bunch of unarmed innocence standing between them and victory.

On their captain’s order, Adam and Inara took off at a run, one behind the other, and James stayed back a moment.

“Wish I knew what in the gorram ‘verse made you do all this,” he told Jin Boyd. “Maybe I deserve it, who’s to say, but if I find out any of your crew has harmed my family - _anybody_ in my family - the next bullet goes through your skull.”

Before Boyd could blink, James fired, his shot sailing past by the other captain’s head, missing his ear by an inch.

“Let that be a warning to ya,” he told him, before running off behind Adam and Inara.

If the rest of this band of varmints were back on Serenity, they no doubt had some plan of attack. Even with Zoe and potentially Brooke able to fight them off, they would be sitting ducks, and unsuspecting of any funny business. James ran faster, just thinking of those he cared so much for being hurt. Not on his watch.

* * *

“Zoe, my dear, how wonderful to see you.” The red-haired woman smiled sweetly. “I really have been gone too long from our sweet ship.”

There was something about the way she said it, about the look in her eyes as she stared up at Zoe that made Mrs Harbatkin a might wary. When there had been a literally knocking on the door, Hoban had opened up communications to ask who was wanting in. It had come as a surprise to him and Zoe both when the woman dirtside had declared she was the pilot’s wife. Of course, they had to let her in, because surely, nobody would lie about something like that, and yet, Zoe was apprehensive, one hand close to her gun at all times as she tried to figure out just exactly what was going on here.

“Wow!” Hoban exclaimed himself as he appeared on the stairs. “Ah, I mean, hi,” he said to the newcomer then.

“Sweetheart,” the red-head said happily, grinning as she ran to meet him, throwing her arms up around his neck. “I missed you. Honestly, I was starting to think you’d never get here!”

“Oh, well, we had quite the journey,” said Hoban, staring over her shoulder at Zoe.

He could’ve sworn he saw hurt in her eyes, and quite honestly, as gorgeous as the woman in his arms might be, she didn’t really feel like his wife somehow. He almost felt bad just holding onto her when Zoe was close by.

“You don’t look so pleased to see me, honey,” said the nameless wife as she pulled back to better see Hoban then. “What? No kiss for your loving Ophelia?”

Wincing a little at the very thought, Hoban glanced over to see Zoe striding out of the cargo bay and let out a sigh. He really did not understand any of what had happened in the last few days, and though he knew he wasn’t the only one, that didn’t really help at all.

Looking back to his so-called wife, Ophelia, now with her eyes closed and a pout on her lips, he realised all he could really do was kiss her as she asked. Leaning in, his lips barely grazed hers when suddenly Hoban found himself falling, crashing headlong into the ground, before the world went black.

“Really?” said the former Mrs Reynolds, staring down at Hoban’s prone form. “Even with amnesia, you still can’t get over her? Buhn dahn!” she said nastily, moving to head on up the stairs to the bridge.

She didn’t get far before a blur caught her eye and then suddenly there was someone in her path.

“Liar,” said the brunette, fire in her eyes. “Looking through you, seeing all the names and numbers. Bad liar!” she repeated more loudly.

Before Ophelia could respond, heavy footsteps caught her attention. She turned to look, in time to see Zoe coming back into the cargo bay.

“Brooke, what’s going... on?” she asked, question become disjointed as she saw Hoban slumped on the ground and the face-off between Ophelia and Brooke in the middle of the stairway.

In a flash, her gun was out of its holster, but Zoe soon realised she didn’t need to shoot. Like lightning, Brooke reached for Ophelia’s arm, pulled it around and twisted it up her back. She held the other woman tightly for a few seconds, before she managed to break away.

A fight ensured, the two of them balanced precariously on the small landing between stairways, and Zoe was sure one would go over the handrail and fall to their death before long. Still, she knew trying to shoot one without hitting the other would be a tough ask, even for her, and getting into the middle of the fight would just make it more dangerous. Rushing to Hoban instead, she dragged him clear of any possible further injury and checked that he wasn’t too badly hurt.

“Don’t do this to me, husband,” she found herself saying, realising almost too late just exactly she had said.

There was a frown on her face as she looked up to see James, Adam, and Inara come rushing through the still-open door, guns in their hands and scowls on their faces. The two men were also dragging a body each behind them.

“Da shiong la se la ch’wohn tian,” James cursed, looking from Hoban and Zoe, up to where Brooke was fighting Ophelia yet.

Just as Adam looked set to run into the fray, Brooke got the upper hand with a cry of glory, pushing Ophelia to her knees and kicking her unceremoniously in the face to keep her down. She was soon out cold, slumped on the stairs, and Brooke looked down at the others with a wide smile.

“No power in the ‘verse can stop me!” she said happily.

“What in the gorram hell is going on around here?” asked James, shaking his head. “Somebody better have some kinda explanation for all o’ this mess!”

He glanced from one member of his crew to the next, waiting for an answer. As much as they had all lost their memory, he was beginning to think somebody ought to have at least figured out something that was going on. Truth to say, he knew he ought to have it solved his ownself as the Captain of the ship, and yet, he found himself more and more confused at every turn.

“Time for a story,” said Brooke, catching the attention of everyone else one more time, even Hoban who seemed to have come around in the middle of the confusion, his head in Zoe’s lap. “They have to tell.”

“Yeah, guess you got a point,” said Adam, scratching his beard with his free hand.

James looked between them, eyes growing wider all the time. “I’m gonna ask this just one more time before I start riddlin’ folks with holes. What in the gorram hell is going on around here?!"


	10. When Did All The Crazy Happen?

Kaylee woke to a shifting in the bed besides her, which gave her some cause for concern. The worry went away, to be replaced by confusion when she blinked her eyes open and realised who had now gotten as far as standing at the foot of the bed.

“Simon?” she checked. “What’s goin’ on?”

“Kaylee,” he said breathlessly, looking like a startled animal in the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. “I, uh... I don’t know what to say.”

Kaylee sat up and tried to get a better look at him, amused to find he was half in and half out of his pants yet. She also noticed he was staring pretty hard at some place lower than her face, and then blushing profusely as he turned away. She glanced down then pulled the covers up over her naked chest and giggled.

It took a minute for her brain to unscramble everything. The first thing she recalled when she woke was sitting around the table in the galley, drinking some real strong moonshine that Captain Boyd gave them all after a job well done. Kaylee thought that was why she felt so tired, but this was like no hangover she ever had before. Now, looking at Simon, a whole bunch of new memories came rushing to the surface, jostling for space among all the others.

“Oh my... we got married,” she said, looking down at the ring on her hand with a feeling of delight as well as shock.

“Yes, I know.” Simon nodded, now fully in his pants but little else, arms folding awkwardly across his chest as he snuck a peek at Kaylee again.

He seemed to sigh with relief that she was now covered up, but on thinking about what they had been getting up to last night, not to mention much of today, she wondered how he could ever be so bashful. Besides, like they just agreed, they was married now. What harm did it do for him to see all she had?

“The only explanation I can come up with,” Simon continued then, “is that the alcohol we consumed had some additional component, something that caused us all to lose our memories until...”

“Until?” Kaylee checked.

Simon cleared his throat and pushed his hair back from his forehead, holding it there.

“Until such time as our bodies metabolised the substance, which of course is something that varies from person to person, and is also dependent on the intake of further food and drink, as well as... as level of physical activity,” he said, going beet red.

Kaylee put one hand over her mouth trying to hold in further laughter, though she found it virtually impossible. Seeing how uncomfortable she was making Simon certainly sobered her up fast, but there was no way she was feeling bad about anything that had happened here, not one bit.

“So, you’re sayin’,” she said as she hopped out of bed, holding the covers around her yet, for her new husband’s sake, “that we sorta sweated out the booze?”

“In basic terms, I suppose, yes.” Simon nodded, visibly swallowing hard as she stood before him. “Kaylee, you have to know that... that I wouldn’t ever have... That is to say, you and I, what we did...”

“We got married,” she repeated, showing him the ring. “I wanted to, and you wanted to, right?”

“I did,” he agreed.

“Then what’s the problem here?” she asked, putting on her best smile that just came so easy right now. “Simon, I know this happened in kind of a crazy way, but I got no regrets.”

When he looked away, she felt her heart break a little.

“Oh, but you do. You wish you could take it back-”

“No,” he told her fast, grabbing her arm when she moved to turn away from him. “Kaylee, no, I don’t regret being with you,” he said sincerely. “Not in any way, I promise. I just... It shouldn’t have been like this, under the influence. It’s not...”

“Proper?” she asked, smirking yet. “You’re real attached to that word, Doctor Tam.”

Simon smiled, pulling her close in his arms. “I’m actually very attached to you, _Mrs_ Tam,” he told her, unable to keep from grinning or resist the urge to kiss her any longer, so he didn’t.

After all, they were married, and if neither of them had any regrets, despite the circumstances that brought them to this point, it seemed foolish not to enjoy it.

“Hmm,” Kaylee hummed happily as she pulled out of Simon’s arms a little. “I ain’t sayin’ this ain’t fun and all,” she admitted, biting her lip to keep from laughing when she noted her sheet had dropped by now and she was completely natural before her husband, “but don’t you think we should put on some clothes and maybe check on everybody else? Last I saw, Cap’n and Zoe thought they was wed too.”

“Ah, yes,” said Simon as he recalled she was right, though it was awfully difficult to concentrate when she was standing so close in such a state of undress. “I suppose we should check in with everyone else.”

Kaylee nodded that he was right then turned around to reach for her clothes to get dressed. She physically jumped, almost a mile in the air it seemed, when Simon suddenly cursed loudly.

“Simon, what’s the matter?” she asked, spinning back to face him.

“M-My sister,” he stammered out, “and... and Jayne?!”

* * *

“C’mon now, mei mei,” the captain urged his supposed daughter. “Now, you wanted us all to come gather here and we did. Now I want that explanation on what is goin’ on, if you got one to give.”

“She does.” River nodded dutifully as she stood before them. “Here in this room, the crime was perpetrated,” she explained, hands resting on the end of the galley table, around which the others sat - Captain, Zoe, Wash, Inara, and Jayne.

Four were still confused yet, but the last of them was looking as shifty as anything. River had meant for him to be stood up with her to explain, but it wasn’t his way to be brave in all situations. Gun battles, knife fights, anything with weapons or even hand-to-hand combat was Jayne Cobb’s speciality. He struggled with feelings, with people.

“Brooke?”

She startled at the sound of her alternate name, sure she would miss it when it was gone, much as she missed so many other things that were long gone from her life and her muddled mind. Shaking herself from the daze brought on by thoughts of the man that had once been her enemy and was lately her lover, she looked back to the captain and took a deep breath. 

“She knew,” River confessed then. “Not when they woke all together, but she knew before,” she tried to explain, knowing she was making a poor showing when several confused faces continued to stare back at her. “Fermented vegetable drinks, affects the brain,” she tried again, one hand by her head, fingers wiggling in a gesture to represent the muddling of the mind.

Frowning hard, the captain looked to Zoe. “You remember bein’ drunk?”

“No, sir,” she replied immediately, then looked thoughtful. “Well, maybe a little,” she admitted then.

“That gorram moonshine them hwun-dahns gave us after the poker game!” Jayne suddenly exclaimed, slamming his hand on the table. “They did all o’ this, tried to take the gorram ship out from under us, Mal.”

“Mal?” the captain echoed, shaking his head. “I’m not...”

“Yes, you are,” River assured him, her hand on his shoulder. “Captain Malcolm Reynolds,” she explained, nodding her head to confirm the truth of the words she spoke. “Head of the family, but not father,” she added sadly.

“Not father?” he checked.

“Nor husband,” Zoe added in. “Least, I’m pretty sure on that,” she told him, eyes straying to the pilot who was holding a rag to the wound on his head yet.

“Zoe Washburne,” River said, catching all their attention. “Marriage bands tie her to Hoban Washburne. Wash,” she explained. “Captain was married once. She was a liar.”

“Still is by all accounts,” Jayne chipped in, finally getting off his pigu and coming to stand by River as he picked up her explanation. “She might be somethin’ to look at, but the little guay toh guay nown ain’t worth the trouble she brings, that’s for sure. Knot on Wash’s head oughta prove that.”

“Ophelia?” he checked, shaking his head and immediately wishing he hadn’t moved in such a way.

“Red as her hair once, as Mrs Reynolds,” River told them all. “Saffron.”

“Saffron?” Mal echoed, mind seeming to unscramble the more information was supplied to it. “Zoe and... Wash. Inara, and... Jayne?” he said, looking around the faces of his crew.

River giggled. “Adam was a good name, but yes, man is named Jayne,” she said, looking up at him.

“And she ain’t Brooke like you thought either,” he said of her, refusing to meet her eyes but looking to Mal instead. “Real name’s River. Course the doc is her brother and all, that part we got right.”

“Did we at least guess his name correctly?” asked Inara curiously.

“We did,” Simon told them all as he emerged from the corridor, pulling Kaylee along by her hand behind him. “I see we’re not the only ones to have recovered some memories.”

“Things are startin’ to unravel a bit,” Mal agreed, nodding his head. “Gao yang jong duh goo yang!” he exclaimed then at the sight of the young couples adjoined hands. “I married the two o’ you to each other.”

“Yes, Cap’n, you did that.” Kaylee giggled. “And before you go on thinkin’ you did wrong, don’t,” she insisted. “We got no regrets here.”

“Got one or two myself,” said Zoe, shifting her seat away from Mal’s own and more towards her real husband.

Certainly, it showed on her face that she felt better about her actual marriage then her imagined one, which made Wash smile at the very least. River saw it all, inside of their minds, places she usually would never look on purpose, but now it seemed she might without a problem. Zoe and Wash had been craving the company of each other so much, now at least they were free to act on their feelings. The captain seemed equally relieved to know Zoe was only his crew-mate, not his mate for life. As for Inara, she was quiet and regal as ever, but she was relieved on the inside. Glad as Mal to know he was unattached, River was certain.

“The liquor we was dosed with,” said the captain then, shaking his head some. “Why’d Boyd even-”

“For his wife,” River explained. “Tried to take our home once before.”

“Someone tried to take Serenity again?” asked Kaylee, scandalised by the very idea. “But we stopped ‘em, right?”

“Same little jien huo who tried to take it before, just like the little woman said,” Jayne explained, hiking his thumb in River’s general direction. “Captain’s wife went and made herself a bride all over again.”

“Saffron?” Kaylee gasped, wide-eyed.

“She’s aboard ship?” asked Simon, looking to Mal to explanation, but he didn’t seem to have one to give.

River huffed out a tired sigh. As the only one that seemed to know everything, as usual, it seemed she was going to have to get everyone up to speed before she even got a chance to unravel what had happened between her and Jayne.

“Always so much to accomplish,” she complained, before starting all over again from the top.


	11. Who Do You Want To Be?

“Just seems sad to me is all.” Kaylee sighed, even as she pushed herself closer to Simon on the couch, not hating the feel of his arm around shoulders. “I got somethin’ I been wantin’ an awful lot outta this whole mess.”

“As did I,” her husband agreed with a smile that made her all the happier, and yet.

“Just seems like most other folks around here is sadder than ever. Cap’n and Inara most of anyone.”

“And yet some are happier, in ways that I’m not afraid to admit disturb me... _a lot_.” Simon shuddered. “I mean, do you understand what River could ever see in that... that man-ape gone wrong thing!” he said of Jayne.

Kaylee laughed at that. “Come on, now, you know Jayne ain’t so bad,” she told him, not even minding how wide his eyes got when she did. “He really ain’t. Much as he can be loud and crass and all, he can be real sweet too. Cares a lot for this crew, every one o’ us. I don’t think you got anythin’ to fear. ‘Sides, we all know what River is capable of too. Laid him out good and proper, didn’t she?”

At that remark, Simon frowned a little. “She did,” he said as he recalled the event from the two muddled days that had just now passed. “What surprises me isn’t her capability. She has science and math on her side, which means a person of any size can fell another that ought to be impossible to move. I just have to wonder what provoked her attack. It’s the not the first time she did something like that.”

It wasn’t until he said it that Kaylee remembered the last time herself, when River took a knife to Jayne’s chest and all. They never did figure out why exactly, and now, with the two of them having been acting kind of like sweeties when they was under the influence, she really didn’t know what to think.

“Maybe it’s best to let ‘em figure it out their ownselves,” she said eventually, shrugging her shoulders. “Might be best if everybody aboard did that,” she said pointedly, as she noticed Inara walking by, clearly in search of someone.

Simon followed her gaze and then sighed. “She was hurt, wasn’t she? To see Mal with Zoe.”

“’Ceptin’ he never was with her,” Kaylee noted. “They was never really married. Far as I know, they never acted like they was, least that’s what I heard Zoe tellin’ Wash before.”

“Then perhaps each relationship can be re-established as it was before,” said Simon thoughtfully. “I have to say, for all the trouble that Captain Boyd and his wife caused, I can’t be entirely sorry that we were taken in by them,” he told her then, smiling widely.

“Me either,” Kaylee agreed, practically throwing herself at him and kissing him long and hard on the lips.

Though Mal came by right in that moment, he never said a word, just kept to walking in his search for Inara. She was up on the walkway, gazing down on the cargo bay, when he finally caught up to her, looking as strikingly beautiful as ever, of course, and yet the smile she wore didn’t meet her eyes when she glanced his way.

“Captain Reynolds,” she said so formally as to make him wince. “What became of your charming wife?”

He bristled at that question, not least because he had a feeling she weren’t just talking about Saffron, or Ophelia, or whatever she was calling herself this go-around. After all, going on two and three days now, he had it in his head that Zoe was his other half. What an unholy mess that had been. Mal was glad enough to have pretty much all of his memories back in place since he woke up this morning, but that didn’t fix everything.

“Managed to cut a deal with Patience. Figured we owed her somethin’, after how she tipped us off about Boyd’s men and all,” he explained, leaning on the rail beside Inara and looking down into the blank space beneath, same as she was. “Seems she has a debt of her own to pay to a less-than-righteous landowner a couple o’ clicks from here. Saffron oughta fit the bill just fine.”

“Tzao-gao, Mal!” the companion gasped with surprise. “Saffron is many things, but you wouldn’t see her sent to some tyrant-”

“She’ll do just fine,” Mal insisted firmly. “Not that I think she deserves a hint o’ kindness, but the landowner is a woman and a fair-minded type. She ain’t no slave trader, just someone who can keep the kuh wu little madam outta our hair for a good long spell.”

That seemed to satisfy Inara, with regards to Saffron anyway. Mal knew well enough there was plenty more to be said if he wanted to bring that genuine smile he knew and loved back to her face. Just wished he was better with fancy words than he actually was.

“’Nara, I... I ain’t one for speechifying, nor apologisin’ much, you know that.”

“What kind of apology or speech would I require from you, Captain?” she asked him, glancing away.

His hand on her own soon brought her attention back to him.

“Don’t do that, ‘Nara,” he urged her. “Now, you know well and all what I’m tryin’ to say here. That whole mess with the moonshine, me thinkin’ that Zoe and me... Makes me shudder just to think on it. I mean, she’s a fine woman, fine soldier too, but I ain’t ever-”

“I am very well aware of the relationship between you and Zoe, Mal,” Inara assured him. “I rather think Wash had more right to be worried than I ever did.”

“Rights don’t come into it.” Mal shook his head. “And if they do, well, you got ‘em just the same. Oughta know that by now,” he told her with a slight smile.

“Perhaps.” Inara nodded slowly. “But it would be nice to hear it said all the same,” she said with a smile of her own, not backing off at all as Mal leaned in closer.

They never noticed the people moving below, River catching Jayne by the arm and urging him back out of the cargo bay into the dark corridor, before they were spotted. To his credit Jayne didn’t show any signs of being startled by her suddenly being there behind him, but truth to say, he hadn’t a clue until she reached for him.

“What you want now, you fong luh little witch?” he asked her crossly, though there wasn’t half so much venom in those words than there might have been once upon a time.

He’d been finding it tough enough these past few months to be mad at her all of the time, and after the past couple of days, the past couple of nights, when they was together and all, it was harder than ever. Didn’t that just have a half dozen meanings these days he didn’t much want to consider either.

“Had trouble sleeping,” she told him, looking up from the ground to meet his eyes. “Without him.”

“Get used to it,” he warned her. “Some stupid moonshine made us crazy a while, but now it’s wore off. End of situation.”

“Knows better than that,” she told him crossly, eyes flashing angrily in the dim light. “He knew before the end, same as she. Knew exactly what they were doing.”

Whether she meant the sexing they got into or something else, Jayne couldn’t be sure, but given she could look into people’s heads and all, seemed pretty clear he couldn’t lie his way out of anything here. Of course, that didn’t mean he had no defence to speak of.

“You know just exactly what _you_ did, crazy woman?” he asked her, tilting his head as he stared at her. “You rememberin’ what happened, right out there?”

He pointed back out towards the cargo bay, the place he had ended up flat on his back, knocked out cold by little River just a couple of days before. To her credit, she looked shame-faced about it, for all of five seconds, before the smile was back.

“He wasn’t complaining about her putting him flat on his back at other times,” she said smartly.

“Ain’t even the point, girly,” he warned her, pointing his finger in her face this time. “You and me, we ain’t gonna end up like your brother and little Kaylee. This ain’t no fairy-tale, dong ma?”

“Not stupid,” she snapped at him then, grabbing the finger from in front of her face and yanking it hard. “She knows what she is, what he is too. Ariel still haunts them both,” she said with a knowing look, “but together... they don’t have to be afraid.”

He meant to tell her he wasn’t afraid of nothing, but that would be a lie, and of all people, she would know. She always gorram knew.

Maybe that was better, in the long-term. After all, Jayne weren’t exactly the best with words. If she could see what he meant to say without him having to explain, could be it was to his advantage. A lot of this might yet work out to his advantage.

“Mutual benefits,” she said, nodding her head and smiling slowly. “Mutually consenting adults.”

“I gotta be as kwong-juh duh as you are if I agree to this,” he told her, even as he moved in closer, pinning her to the wall.

“Doubt that’s possible,” she said, laughing as if it were a joke, but it was only a few seconds before she was serious again. “Might better consider his clothing choices,” she said thoughtfully. “Don’t have all the answers yet, but twice she has attacked the Blue Sun.”

Jayne frowned a little at that remark, brain more than a little fuzzed by lust and possibilities to be thinking too straight on anything else. Still, he realised after a minute, she did have a point. Both times she come at him in violence, he had on that same gorram shirt with the Blue Sun logo. God only knew what that meant, but he had a notion not to wear that thing no more.

“Good thinkin’, girly,” he said, nodding his head. “Any more smart ideas you wanna share?”

“Just one,” she said, throwing her arms up around his neck and pulling him close enough to kiss.

It seemed such a thing might just be a theme aboard ship, since up above them on the bridge, Zoe and Wash were very much lost in their own romantic moment. They were certainly hell-bent on a lot more than kissing, at least until an alarm sounded and Wash was forced to pull away from his beloved.

“You prioritising this ship over your wife, husband?” she asked, as he almost threw her from his lap to get to his controls.

“Sorry, Lamby-Toes, but I sort of figured you didn’t want us to crash and die right now.”

“Would put a crimp on my plans for later,” she dead-panned, standing by the pilot’s chair to watch him do what he did best.

“Comin’ in to land on Athens in just a few minutes. Might wanna let the Captain know, this is where his wife needs dropping.”

“Yes, dear,” Zoe agreed, planting one last kiss on his cheek before she left.

Running down to the cargo bay, she found Mal was already there, headed for the hiding place they usually reserved for contraband.

“Want some help taking out the trash, sir?”

“Wouldn’t mind it,” the Captain told her with a grin, pulling the panel aside and revealing a gasping Saffron. “This is where you get off,” he told her sternly, “for good this time. Then we got someone needs picking up instead.”

Zoe hauled Saffron out into the light effortlessly, not least since the other woman was bound at both her hands and feet, and gagged for good measure.

“Preacher’s gonna start to wonderin’ what’s taken us so long.”

“Well, let him keep on wondering.” Mal shrugged. “I sure as heck ain’t tellin’ him the tale of the past few days. Seems he keeps secrets enough from the rest of us. Might be just as wise to return the favour.”

* * *

It was strange to Shepherd Book how much he could miss home. There really wasn’t one place in the whole of the ‘verse he could say he truly belonged for such a long time. Not the place he was born, nor anywhere he had been stationed. Not even the abbey on Persephone that he had made his place for a while. Then came Serenity, and a crew of thieves and mercenaries and fugitives, and suddenly, he had a place that he could think of as his own, where he knew what to expect, where he felt welcome and needed.

The sight of the magnificent bird landing in the sand was such a welcome sight, as was little Kaylee, waving happily from the ramp, as he made his approach.

“Hey there, Shepherd!” she greeted him with much enthusiasm as he came aboard. “You have a nice walk in the world?”

“It was quite enlightening, yes,” he said, only now noticing quite how tightly Kaylee was holding onto Simon’s hand. “Did I... miss something?” he asked, looking past the apparent couple to the exercise area beyond.

Jayne was just now dropping back onto his feet after a series of chin-ups over the bar, only to have River wrap her arms around him, the pair kissing like young lovers might.

“Oh, my!” Book gasped with surprise.

“There have been one or two... revelations,” said Simon, shifting uncomfortably, “since you left us.”

“One or two?” asked Book warily.

“Best thing you can do, Shepherd, is ask no questions and be told no lies,” said Mal as he suddenly appeared, slapping Book on the back as he hit the button with his other hand and closed up the ramp. “Been a heck of a last few days, I don’t mind tellin’ ya.”

“Apparently.” Book nodded, more than a little dumbfounded still by the idea of not just Simon and Kaylee making a pair, but River and Jayne too.

“Ah, Shepherd,” said Inara as she descended the steps and saw he was back. “How are you? Can I offer you some refreshment? Some tea perhaps?”

“I... I think I might be needing something just a little stronger,” he confessed in a low voice.

He would never know why that comment caused such uproarious laughter in all quarters, and had a mind that perhaps he shouldn’t ask any more about it!


End file.
